Control of Heavy Duty Vehicle

Communication Systems
Enabling Technologies

1. PATH LABORATORY

Task Order 4224

Raja Sengupta, California PATH
raja@path.berkeley.edu, http://www.path.berkeley.edu/PATH/General/Staff/sengupta.html

Chin-Woo Tan, California PATH
tan@robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu, http://www.path.berkeley.edu/~tan/

This project is a continuation of MOU329. It continues research on ITS enabling technologies in the PATH Laboratory. This research work falls into two major categories: wireless communications and inertial navigation. The research on wireless communications will continue to extend and leverage PATH's research on the design of AHS communication architecture and protocols by integrating it with emerging mobile data access products and standards. A mobile data access architecture and protocols will be designed to facilitate the deployment of vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-roadside cooperative systems, and partially or fully automated highway systems. The research on inertial navigation will continue to design and deliver an improved testing and laboratory environment for use and benefit of Communications and Navigation groups of the PATH Laboratory. The ultimate objective is to develop a gyro-free inertial navigation system with GPS-based error correction algorithms. The algorithms will be simulated and experimentally tested. There will be a collaboration between the two groups. The Communication group will use the vehicle location (GPS/INS) information for solving the First Contact Problem, and the Navigation group will use the communication channels for delivering differential correction information.

2. A ROBUST COMMUNICATION LINK AND ARCHITECTURE DESIGN FOR THE AHS

Task Order 4212

Andrea Goldsmith, Standord University
andrea@ee.stanford.edu, http://ee.stanford.edu/~andrea

This project is a continuation of MOU389. It continues to investigate the different communication requirements and quality of service (such as messages of varying lengths and priorities) for data access in AHS communications. It will then design robust communication link and data access protocols by considering the problem that the overall communication architecture for an AHS is complicated by (i) the propagation environment of the signals, (ii) the existence of multiple interference signals, and (iii) the mobility and dynamic character of platoons. Given the complications, existing and emerging commercial technologies will be evaluated to determine if they can fulfill the communication requirements of an AHS. Finally, the focus will be on the design of a hierarchical communication system architecture that supports all different layers (application, transport, network, data link, physical) and fulfills the communication requirements.