Workshop: Road Vehicle Teleoperation 2022

Title: Open Source Software for Teleoperated Driving and its Applications.

Presenter: Frank Diermeyer, Technical University of Munich, Germany.

Time: 8:45–9:15 (CET)

Abstract:
Besides well-known applications such as space exploration or search and rescue operations, the application of teleoperation in the area of automated driving, i.e., teleoperated driving (ToD), is becoming more popular. Instead of an in-vehicle human fallback driver, a remote operator can connect to the vehicle using cellular networks and resolve situations that are beyond the automated vehicle (AV)'s operational design domain. Teleoperation of AVs introduces different challenges, e.g., latency, reduced situational awareness and safety. These are the focus of ongoing research. In this presentation, an open source ToD software stack is shown, which was developed for the purpose of carrying out this research on aforementioned challenges or different remote control concepts. The software stack can be deployed with minor overheads to control various vehicle systems remotely. Among others, this was demonstrated in the project 5GCroCo, for which results will be also be presented.

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Title: An Eye on the Automation: User-Centered Development of a Human-Machine Interface for the Remote Assistance of Highly Automated Vehicles (SAE 4).

Presenter: Andreas Schrank, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany.

Time: 9:15–9:45 (CET)

Abstract:

Automated driving is a disruptive technology related to a plethora of safety-related, economical, and ecological improvements. However, even cutting-edge driving automation technology at SAE Level 4 is not capable of coping with all scenarios that can possibly occur in naturalistic road traffic. A remote operator may be a viable approach to observe highly automated vehicles (HAVs) from a control center and assist the automation whenever its capabilities are exceeded. Moreover, legal requirements in Germany dictate a “Technical Supervisor” be monitoring automated driving operations. For the safe, effective, and efficient interaction between remote operator and vehicle automation it is therefore vital to design a human-machine interface (HMI) by centrally involving its future users and focusing on the scenarios that will likely occur in Level 4 automated driving. By pursuing a user- and context-centered approach, an HMI for the Remote Assistance of HAVs has been generated. The HMI has been evaluated by experts and prototypically implemented as a workplace for the Remote Assistant, is currently under usability evaluation in a user study and will be refined in future iterations. After presenting this process, a roadmap to further investigate teleoperation from a Human Factors perspective will be proposed.

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Title: Industry perspective on remote monitoring and operation of electric autonomous vehicles

Presenter: Xueying Hai, Einride, Sweden

Time: 9:45–10:10 (CET)

Abstract:

Einride's Remote Pod Operators monitor and control electric autonomous vehicles remotely, in real time. This opens up a new career path for trucking - one that offers a more consistent work environment, closer to home. By keeping humans in the loops, a team of Einride Remote Pod Operators will ensure safe scaling of autonomous shipping solutions across current and future customer operations. We believe that going autonomous does not equate to losing the human element. We believe the opposite, that tech is stronger with the human element still in the loop and we are dedicated to creating a safer rollout of our autonomous and electric technology with this remote operation approach. This talk will outline the experiences of developing such a solution and our vision for the future of remote operation.

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Title: : A Multilayered Security Infrastructure for Connected Vehicles - First Lessons from the Field.

Presenter: Lukas Stahlbock, IAV GmbH, Germany.

Time: 10:30–11:00 (CET)

Abstract:

Autonomous cars can reduce road traffic accidents and provide a safer mode of transport. However, key technical challenges, such as safe navigation in complex urban environments, need to be addressed before deploying these vehicles on the market. Teleoperation can help smooth the transition from human operated to fully autonomous vehicles since it still has human in the loop providing the scope of fallback on driver. This paper presents an Active Safety System (ASS) approach for teleoperated driving. The proposed approach helps the operator ensure the safety of the vehicle in complex environments, that is, avoid collisions with static or dynamic obstacles. Our ASS relies on a model predictive control (MPC) formulation to control both the lateral and longitudinal dynamics of the vehicle. By exploiting the ability of the MPC framework to deal with constraints, our ASS restricts the controller's authority to intervene for lateral correction of the human operator's commands, avoiding counter-intuitive driving experience for the human operator. Further, we design a visual feedback to enhance the operator's trust over the ASS. In addition, we propose an MPC's prediction horizon data based novel predictive display to mitigate the effects of large latency in the teleoperation system. We tested the performance of the proposed approach on a high-fidelity vehicle simulator in the presence of dynamic obstacles and latency.

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Title: Human-automation interaction in remote operation of automated vehicles – findings from the HAVOC project

Presenter: Jonas Andersson, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Sweden

Time: 11:00–11:30 (CET)

Abstract:

Fully automated driving has posed more significant challenges than expected. Therefore human operators will have an essential role in remote operation. The talk will present findings from a research project performed in collaboration between RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and Scania. In the project, requirements for remote operator work were explored through a simulator study. The results provide examples and insights on classical automation-related challenges in a new context – remote operation of heavy vehicles. Specifically, the systems perspective of remote operation is discussed in relation to the design of operator work.

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Title: Of Miniature Autonomy on Land, on Water and in the Air and Why IV Should Bother About It

Presenters: Tim Tiedemann, University of Applied Sciences Hamburg, Germany.

Time: 11:30–11:50 (CET)

Abstract:

The AutoSys research group at HAW Hamburg deals with autonomous sensor data processing and autonomous control in several public-funded and industry-funded research projects. One group of research topics belongs to an idea called "miniature autonomy". Miniature autonomy tries to realize autonomous sensing, environmental modelling, decision making, and control onboard tiny vehicles of a 1:87 scale or smaller. By this challenging limitation, methods need to be redesigned, some even from scratch. Solutions are supposed to be applicable back to real-world scale and to be more simple and potentially more robust. Vehicles developed and built so far are aerial, water, but most are road vehicles. In the talk, a brief overview of current projects and an introduction to miniature autonomy will be given.

Dr.-Ing. Frank Diermeyer
Technical University of Munich, Germany

Frank Diermeyer received his Diplom and PH.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany in 2001 and 2008, respectively. Since 2008, he has been Senior Engineer of the Chair of Automotive Technology at TUM and has been leader of the research group Automated Driving. His research interests include teleoperated driving, human-machine-interaction and safety validation.

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Andreas Schrank, M.Sc.
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Transportation Systems, Braunschweig, Germany

Andreas Schrank is a Human Factors researcher at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Transportation Systems. He obtained his Master’s degree in Psychology from Heidelberg University, Germany, while also studying in Istanbul, Turkey, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. In his research, Andreas Schrank focuses on human-machine interaction in the realm of automated driving with an emphasis on the Human Factor in teleoperated automated vehicles, particularly regarding roles, tasks, systems, and user-centered interfaces. He is involved in major EU research projects like “Hi-Drive” as well as several German national research projects on this topic.

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Prof. Dr. Tim Tiedemann
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg)

Tim Tiedemann studied computer science with a focus on robotics and neural networks at Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany. After receiving his Diploma in computer science (i.e. Master degree level), he worked as research assistant at the Cognitive Psychology Group and at the Computer Engineering Group (both at Bielefeld University). In his Ph.D. studies in biorobotics he focused on the transfer of (neuro-) biological concepts to the robotic domain. From 2010 till 2016 he worked as postdoc in the area of space and underwater robotics at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Bremen, Germany.Since 2016 he is professor of intelligent sensing at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany). His main research interests are sensors and sensor data processing (including machine learning methods) and robotics.

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Lukas Stahlbock
IAV GmbH, Germany

Lukas Stahlbock studied Mechanical Engineering in Braunschweig, Germany and received his Master of Science degree from TU Braunschweig in 2017. Afterwards, he started working for IAV GmbH, an automotive service provider. Main subjects he is working on are in-vehicle communication design and validation, service oriented architectures and API management as well as edge computing integration in automotive systems. In 2019, Lukas Stahlbock started an industry-sponsored doctorate with focus of applying container orchestration for automotive degradation strategies.

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Jonas Andersson, PhD
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Sweden

Jonas Andersson has an M.Sc. in Industrial Design & Production Engineering from Luleå University of Technology and holds a PhD in Human-Technology-Design from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Jonas has more than 15 years of experience in research and development on human-automation interaction and systems design in a range of domains such as automotive, maritime, process- and nuclear industries. He is currently acting unit manager and senior researcher in the Humanized Autonomy team at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden in Gothenburg.

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Xueying Hai, PhD
Einride, Sweden

Xueying Hai is the Product Manager for Remote Operation for Autonomous Transport at Einride. Previously she worked in product management at Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology in Sweden. She received her Master's degree in Material Science from Grenoble Institute of Technology and Technische Universität Darmstadt and her Ph.D. in Material Science from University Grenoble Alpes.

This workshop focuses on different components around road vehicle teleoperation. Road vehicles of interests includes (but are not limited to) connected vehicles that are passenger cars, trucks, and buses; especially those that are automated.

In the context of this workshop, we focus on two modes of vehicle teleoperation: 1) remote assistance; and 2) remote driving.

Let us define a remote operator as a person who operates a vehicle from a distance. We then assume that this operation is done at a remote station, which provides the remote operator with necessary interfaces for operating the vehicle. Remote assistance includes situations when a vehicle requests an assistance during its normal operation. For instance, a vehicle encounters an ambiguous object while driving autonomously, the vehicle then requests assistance from the remote operator in order to confirm whether it is safe to overtake the object. Therefore, in this case, the remote operator assists the vehicle without taking direct control of the vehicle.

On the other hand, remote driving refers to situations when the remote operator takes over control of a vehicle and manually operates the vehicle.

To create a system for road vehicle teleoperation described above, several components are required. For instances, these components are:

1. connectivity between a teleoperated vehicle(s) and a remote operator;
2. human-machine interface for remote operators at remote stations;
3. feedback from vehicles to remote operators; and
4. laws and regulations for vehicle teleoperation.
   

The main topics of interest can be summarized as follows:

• Connectivity challenges in road vehicle teleoperation
• Human factors in road vehicle teleoperation
• Human-machine interface for teleoperation of road vehicles
• Laws and regulations related to road vehicle teleoperation
• Vehicle design and technology to support vehicle teleoperation
• Remote assistance of automated vehicles
• Remote driving of road vehicles
• System architecture for road vehicle teleoperation
  

Please note that we will also welcome other topics, that are relevant to road vehicle teleoperation but not listed above.

The IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium is a premier forum sponsored by the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS). Researchers, engineers, practitioners, and students, from industry, universities and government agencies are invited to present their latest work and to discuss research and applications for Intelligent Vehicles and Vehicle-Infrastructure Cooperation. The conference offers, technical sessions, workshops, poster sessions, exhibitions, and more.

IEEE Intelligent Vehicles 2022 External link.