HT - NaviControl

NaviControl is an Autonomous Driving System that replaces the human driver activities by operating the steering wheel, the pedals and the gearshift.
Due to a differential GPS receiver the system is capable to follows a pre-defined track with an accuracy of ±5 cm, maintains the speed with a deviation of ±0.5 km/h and reproduces a constant deceleration with an accuracy of ±0.03 g.
A Wi-Fi connection allows the data transmission and also the RTK correction, from the Base Station to the vehicle and vice versa.
The NaviControl can be supplied with a 64 channels Daq and 2 CAN Bus reader for data logging capability.

Functional description: The steering robot has a self-centering gripper to turn the steering wheel, an harmonic drive reduction gearing and an anti-rotational mechanism. It can be mounted at the windshield, at the roof or onto the driver seat. In addition the driving robot has electrical actuators to operate the pedals and the gearshift and allows the execution of road test on pre-defined tracks or manual driving with the remote joystick unit.
Pedal actuators can be quickly fixed onto the driver seat, as the same for the gearshift, where customized fixture can be required.
An emergency pneumatic actuator is insert into the brake robot for safety operation in case of power lost. The emergency actuator is supply with a fully independent micro air compressor.
The Control Unit allows to control the steering robot for open loop maneuvers with a wide range of steering inputs, and closed loop maneuvers using a differential GPS.
The pedals and gearshift robot can be added to the base version according to the customer needed.
An on board camera allows to drive the vehicle first at low speed from the BaseStation and then to monitoring the proving ground safety conditions to stop quickly the vehicle in an emergency.
Moreove, even though the steering and the pedals robot are mounted the operator, seating on the passenger seat, can control the vehicle by the Remote Joystick Unit.
The system is able to drive a wide range of vehicles, reacting automatically to over-steer or under-steer, at high levels of lateral acceleration in all-weather condition, 24 hours a day.
Many safety features are designed to avoid a vehicle loss control, the Wi-Fi connection, the GPS signal the power quality are continuously monitored and in emergency case the vehicle can be stopped automatically or manually

Software: The NaviControl Software, running under Windows 7/Vista/XP, allows to create a track with acceleration and deceleration profiles, and to insert pre-defined maneuvers at a specific point of the track.
From the Base Station all the navigation data and the system diagnostic are monitored. The navigation data (position, speed and heading) are logged into the base Station, additional 64 analogue input channels, 8 digital I/O and 256 x 2 CAN bus channels can be acquired and saved into the Control Unit.
The NaviEmbed Software, installed in the Control Unit, perform a real-time corrections to the vehicle’s steering, and the path is followed with an accuracy less than 5 cm on the straight and about 20 cm in curve (depending on the vehicle dynamic behaviors). The speed profile is followed using feedback from the acceleration value acquired from the IMU device. The brake robot can also be driven in displacement or in force control.
Specific software modules were been created to meet international regulations or to develop customer requirements.

Control Unit: Fixed onto the passenger seat the Control Unit controls the steering robot and, if available, the pedals and gearshift robots.
By using the Rremote Joystick Unit the operator can easy make the system setup, drive the vehicle to the track and verify the system status.
To the Control Unit are also connected to the GPS antenna, the IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), the on-board camera and the Wi-Fi Access Point.
The Control Unit is supply in one or two ABS rugged bags, easily and quickly transferable from one vehicle to another.
For durability and misuse testing the Control Unit is supplied with an internal vibration resistant aluminum frame.

Base Station: Based on a laptop where is running the NaviControl Software to display the telemetry data and the system status. The main navigation parameters monitored and logged are: position, speed, track error, roll, pitch and yaw rate, accelerations (X,Y,Z), steering angle and torque, actuators displacement and force.
A second laptop can be used for display the picture of the on-board camera (two cameras can be connected on the same time).
All the electronic devices are continuously verified and any problem can be detected and it allows to stop the vehicle. From the Base Station the vehicle can be driven at low speed. An emergency button allows to stop quickly the vehicle in an emergency.
The Base Station is normally located closely to the differential GPS receiver and the Wi-Fi Access Point, all the components can be supplied with 12 VDC or with an AC adaptor for long duration vehicle testing.