Creating autonomous vehicle systems

Shaoshan Liu

Morgan & Claypool Publishers

2018

Abstract

This book is the first technical overview of autonomous vehicles written for a general computing and engineering audience. The authors share their practical experiences of creating autonomous vehicle systems. These systems are complex, consisting of three major subsystems: algorithms for localization, perception, and planning and control; client systems, such as the robotics operating system and hardware platform; and the cloud platform, which includes data storage, simulation, high-definition (HD) mapping, and deep learning model training. The algorithm subsystem extracts meaningful information from sensor raw data to understand its environment and make decisions about its actions. The client subsystem integrates these algorithms to meet real-time and reliability requirements. The cloud platform provides offline computing and storage capabilities for autonomous vehicles. Using the cloud platform, we are able to test new algorithms and update the HD map-plus, train better recognition, tracking, and decision models.

This book consists of nine chapters.

Chapter 1: provides an overview of autonomous vehicle systems;
Chapter 2: focuses on localization technologies;
Chapter 3: discusses traditional techniques used for perception;
Chapter 4: discusses deep learning based techniques for perception;
Chapter 5: introduces the planning and control sub-system, especially prediction and routing technologies;
Chapter 6: focuses on motion planning and feedback control of the planning and control subsystem;
Chapter 7: introduces reinforcement learning-based planning and control;
Chapter 8: delves into the details of client systems design;
Chapter 9: provides the details of cloud platforms for autonomous driving.