Nov. 24th 2010 - The exciting EU SARTRE project has now been running for a year.
Its purpose is to develop, test and validate technology for vehicles that can drive themselves
in long road trains on motorways. The SARTRE team is currently aiming at carry
out the first development tests of a single lead and following vehicle before
the end of 2010. Released today is a documentary film describing the first
year's work of this multi-partner research initiative.
Now a year into its three year programme of work, the SARTRE project aims to
develop and demonstrate road train technologies that will enable improvements in
traffic flow and faster journey times, offering greater comfort to drivers,
reducing accidents and improving fuel consumption, hence lowering CO2 emissions.
Most of the first year has been busy with the concept phase, which has involved
the seven partner consortium investigating the basic principles of a feasible
platooning system. Issues investigated have included usage cases, human factors
and behaviours associated with platooning, core system parameters, and
specification of prototype architecture and applications. In addition to
providing some highly thought-provoking and useful results in its own right,
this essential groundwork has enabled the team to move on to the start of the
implementation phase which will see the start of vehicle testing.
The SARTRE team is currently aiming to carry out the first development tests of
a single lead and following vehicle before the end of 2010. This first iteration
of the SARTRE architecture will involve installation of the necessary hardware
into the two vehicles, implementation of vehicle- to-vehicle communications,
incorporation and integration of sensors, and low level actuator and lateral and
longitudinal control of the following vehicle. The crucial software integration
needed for driving automation has already commenced, and the first tests of a
two vehicle train are expected to take place before the end of December.
Subsequent phases of the work to be carried out in 2011 and early 2012 will see
the concept demonstrated on a five-vehicle road train with strategies handling
interaction with other road users.
In the eight minutes long documentary, available via the SARTRE web site
(http://www.sartre-project.eu/, www.youtube.com/volvocarsnews and
http://www.media.volvocars.com/ ) a range of interviews are provided by key
participants and stakeholders in the project.
In addition to describing the SARTRE concept in detail, the film shows some of
the simulator-based testing at Tecnalia, Bilbao, Spain, in which human factors
in the implementation of road train technology have been investigated. A sample
group of men and women of varying ages and driving experience were tested in the
simulator, which provides a 120 degree forward field of view via two LCD screens
through which a total length of 18km of virtual motorway can be driven. The
simulator incorporates a steering wheel with force feedback, realistic
manual/automatic transmission controls and a haptic seat installation which,
together, provide a highly realistic virtual driving environment.
This simulation work has enabled the team to assess in detail the response of
drivers both while participating in road trains and while driving independently
in an environment in which road trains are operating. Further coverage is shown
of some of the sensor and actuator development work and of the control
architecture design that will support the implementation phase over the coming
months.
The partners have also published three technical papers, covering specific
details of the work of the concept phase, at the ITS World Congress held in
October at Busan, Korea. These papers - which are also available on the SARTRE
web site (http://www.sartre-project.eu/) - have respectively covered the
subjects of the challenges of platooning on public highways, an overview of the
approach to the development of platooning being taken by the SARTRE project, and
the human factors challenges of implementing such a dual mode transportation
system.
"The SARTRE documentary film and the technical papers delivered at the ITS World
Congress provide an extremely useful insight into the project for those
interested in the potential for road train technology," explains Tom Robinson,
SARTRE project coordinator of Ricardo UK Ltd. "SARTRE is really pushing the
boundaries in this aspect of ITS technology and is already providing some
extremely useful and actionable results. We now look forward to the next stage
of the work of the project which will see vehicle tests, initially of just of a
single vehicle for sensor, actuator and control system validation, then of a two
vehicle platoon later this year and subsequently through the remainder of the
project, a multiple vehicle platoon in order to test, develop, validate and
identify remaining implementation issues for the entire SARTRE system."
