Copyrighl '" IFAC Inlelligenl Aulonomous Vehicles. Espoo. Finland. 1995 AN OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE DEMONSTRATOR: A DEDICATED LAN SYSTEM FOR AUTOMOTIVE REAL-TIME APPLICA TIONS (FRENCH PROMETHEUS PRO-CHIP PROJECT) M. Wahl, A. Lagreze, M. Dang LGI-IMAG - 46. avenue Felix Viallet. 38031-Grenoble Cedex. France Abstract : This paper summarizes one of the French PROMETHEUS PRO-CHIP research projects. which consists in the development of an obstacle detection system. This system allows to detect hazardous situations in roadside traffic and to warn the driver against these situations. A short overview of the PROMETHEUS research projects is made in the introduction. Then the system architecture is described and choices are explained. Keywords: Autonomous vehicles. Obstacle detection. Real-time. Fieldbus. Communication protocols. 1. INTRODUCTION Decreased security and mobility. time and energy waste are traffic bad effects that worry governments. These problems can be resolved by integrating electronics functionality inside the vehicle and have been investigated in PROMETHEUS projects (Holzinger. 1993). PROgram for European Traffic with Highest Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety is split into three industrial and four basic research sub- programs. The industrial sub-programs are about autonomous systems for driver-information and assistance (PRO-CAR). systems for inter-vehicle communication (PRO-NET) and systems for vehicle infra-structure communication (PRO-ROAD). PRO- ART basic research project deals with a method and artificial intelligent system studies. PRO-CHIP is concerned with study and development of inside- vehicle "inteIligent" treatment equipments. The method and standard proposition for communication needs are studied in PRO-COM and the traffic scenario simulation for new system introduction in PRO-GEN. The obstacle detection and avoidance project comes within the framework of European PROMETHEUS PRO-CHIP sub-projects and has been finalized by a demonstrator. This obstacle detection project includes the following technical sub-projects (Maurin. 1993): 393 sensing for vehicle guidance - a LA AS team in Toulouse studies infra-red sensor hardware for sensing leading, a DHS team in Lille studies a pulsed radar sensor; hardware design for signal processing (IEF, Orsay); communication system design (LGI, Grenoble). Many research teams are involved in this project with two French manufacturers (R.N.U.R. and P.S.A.). The distributed architecture of the French demonstrator sets on three points. Sensors and beacons take into account the information coming from the vehicle environment. A dedicated LAN system is used to drive information inside the car (communication level) and to tighten the whole structure by integrating different sensors (including new ones. with new technologies or as new releases of older version). by interfacing with different generations of DSP processors. and by arbitrating the crucial architectural choice between synchronous and asynchronous control-command protocol and between activities such as local pre-treatment. data compression and central decision. A low medium bandwidth network and a medium bandwidth network are used to drive information inside the car. Finally a host computer with boards interprets the information coming from sensors and beacons via networks and makes a decision.