AUTOMATION OF CARS

An autonomous car, also known as robotic or informally as driverless or self-driving, is an autonomous vehicle capable of fulfilling the human transportation capabilities of a traditional car. As an autonomous vehicle, it is capable of sensing its environment and navigating on its own. A human may choose a destination, but is not required to perform any mechanical operation of the vehicle. Autonomous vehicles sense the world with such techniques as radar, lidar, GPS and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret the information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage. Autonomous vehicles typically update their maps based on sensory input, such that they can navigate through uncharted environments. There have been several programs around the world. In June 2011 the state of Nevada was the first jurisdiction in the United States to pass a law concerning the operation of autonomous cars. The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for a self-driven car in May 2012. The license was issued to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology.

Benefits
Autonomous cars are not in widespread use, but their introduction could produce several direct advantages: Fewer traffic collisions, due to the autonomous system's increased reliability compared to human drivers. Increased roadway capacity and reduced traffic congestion due to reduced need of safety gaps and the ability to better manage traffic flow. Relief of vehicle occupants from driving and navigation chores. Removal of constraints on occupant's state - it would not matter if the occupants were too young, too old or if their frame of mind were not suitable to drive a traditional car. Furthermore, disabilities would no longer matter. Alleviation of parking scarcity as cars could drop off passengers, park far away where space is not scarce, and return as needed to pick up passengers. Elimination of redundant passengers - humans are not required to take the car anywhere, as the robotic car can self-drive to wherever it is required. Greater suitability for car-sharing services. Reduction of space required for vehicle parking. Reduction in the need for traffic police and vehicle insurance. Reduction of physical road signage - autonomous cars could receive necessary communication electronically rather than relying on physical road signs and markings. (Although the physical signs would still be required for any human drivers.)

EMBEDDED SYSTEM
An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system, often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal computer (PC), is designed to be flexible and to meet a wide range of end-user needs. Embedded systems control many devices in common use today. Embedded systems contain processing cores that are typically either microcontrollers or digital signal processors (DSP). The key characteristic, however, is being dedicated to handle a particular task. Since the embedded system is dedicated to specific tasks, design engineers can optimize it to reduce the size and cost of the product and increase the reliability and performance. Some embedded systems are mass-produced, benefiting from economies of scale. Physically, embedded systems range from portable devices such as digital watches and MP3 players, to large stationary installations like traffic lights, factory controllers, or the systems controlling nuclear power plants. Complexity varies from low, with a single microcontroller chip, to very high with multiple units, peripherals and networks mounted inside a large chassis or enclosure. Embedded systems span all aspects of modern life and there are many examples of their use. Telecommunications systems employ numerous embedded systems from telephone switches for the network to mobile phones at the end-user. Computer networking uses dedicated routers and network bridges to route data. Consumer electronics include personal digital assistants (PDAs), mp3 players, mobile phones, videogame consoles, digital cameras, DVD players, GPS receivers, and printers. Many household appliances, such as microwave ovens, washing machines and dishwashers, include embedded systems to provide flexibility, efficiency and features. Advanced HVAC systems use networked thermostats to more accurately and efficiently control temperature that can change by time of

day and season. Home automation uses wired- and wireless-networking that can be used to control lights, climate, security, audio/visual, surveillance, etc., all of which use embedded devices for sensing and controlling. Transportation systems from flight to automobiles increasingly use embedded systems. New airplanes contain advanced avionics such as inertial guidance systems and GPS receivers that also have considerable safety requirements. Various electric motors brushless DC motors, induction motors and DC motors use electric/electronic motor controllers. Automobiles, electric vehicles, and hybrid vehicles increasingly use embedded systems to maximize efficiency and reduce pollution. Other automotive safety systems include anti-lock braking system (ABS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC/ESP), traction control (TCS) and automatic four-wheel drive.

Medical equipment is continuing to advance with more embedded systems for vital signs monitoring, electronic stethoscopes for amplifying sounds, and various medical imaging (PET, SPECT, CT, MRI) for non-invasive internal inspections. Embedded systems are especially suited for use in transportation, fire safety, safety and security, medical applications and life critical systems as these systems can be isolated from hacking and thus be more reliable. For fire safety, the systems can be designed to have greater ability to handle higher temperatures and continue to operate. In dealing with security, the embedded systems can be self-sufficient and be able to deal with cut electrical and communication systems. In addition to commonly described embedded systems based on small computers, a new class of miniature wireless devices called motes are quickly gaining popularity as the field of wireless sensor networking rises. Wireless sensor networking, WSN, makes use of miniaturization made possible by advanced IC design to couple full wireless subsystems to sophisticated sensors, enabling people and companies to measure a myriad of things in the physical world and act on this information through IT monitoring and control systems. These motes are completely selfcontained, and will typically run off a battery source for many years before the batteries need to be changed or charged.

VEHICULAR AUTOMATION
Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics and artificial intelligence to assist a vehicle-operator or driver. These features and the vehicles employing them may be labeled as intelligent or smart. A vehicle using automation for difficult tasks, especially navigation, may be referred to as semi-autonomous. A vehicle relying solely on automation is consequently referred to as robotic or autonomous. After the invention of the integrated circuit, the sophistication of automation technology increased. Manufacturers and researchers subsequently added a variety of automated functions to automobiles and other vehicles, relieving the driver of a portion of the decision-making necessary while driving. Ground vehicles employing automation and teleoperation range from shipyard gantries and mining trucks to the likes of bomb-disposal robots and robotic insects. There are plenty of autonomous and semi-autonomous ground vehicles being made for the purpose of transporting passengers. One such example is the free-ranging on grid (FROG) technology which consists of autonomous vehicles, a magnetic track and a supervisory system. The FROG system is deployed for industrial purposes in factory sites and has been operated since 1999 as a public transport system in the city of Capelle aan den IJssel to connect the Rivium business park with the neighboring city of Rotterdam (where the route terminates at the Kralingse Zoom metro station). The system experienced a crash in 2005[3] that proved to be caused by a human error. Applications for automation in ground vehicles include the following: Vehicle tracking system system ESITrack, Lojack Rear-view alarm, to detect obstacles behind. Anti-lock braking system (ABS) (also Emergency Braking Assistance (EBA), often coupled with Electronic brake force distribution (EBD), which prevents the brakes from locking and losing traction while braking. This shortens stopping distances in most cases and, more importantly, allows the driver to steer the vehicle while braking.

Traction control system (TCS) actuates brakes or reduces throttle to restore traction if driven wheels begin to spin. Four wheel drive (AWD) with a centre differential. Distributing power to all four wheels lessens the chances of wheel spin. It also suffers less from oversteer and understeer. Electronic Stability Control (ESC) (also known for Mercedes-Benz proprietary Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Acceleration Slip Regulation (ASR) and Electronic differential lock (EDL)). Uses various sensors to intervene when the car senses a possible loss of control. The car's control unit can reduce power from the engine and even apply the brakes on individual wheels to prevent the car from understeering or oversteering. Dynamic steering response (DSR) corrects the rate of power steering system to adapt it to vehicle's speed and road conditions. Research is ongoing and prototypes of autonomous ground vehicles exist.

CARS
Extensive automation for cars focuses on either introducing robotic cars or modifying modern car designs to be semi-autonomous. Semi-autonomous designs could be implemented sooner as they rely less on technology that is still at the forefront of research. An example is the Dual mode monorail. Groups such as RUF (Denmark), BiWay (UK), ATN (New Zealand) and TriTrack (USA) are working on projects consisting of private cars that dock onto monorail tracks and are driven autonomously around the track. As a method of automating cars without extensively modifying the cars as much as a robotic car, Automated highway systems (AHS) aims to construct lanes on highways that would be equipped with, for example, magnets to guide the vehicles. Highway computers would manage the traffic and direct the cars to avoid crashes. The European Commission has established a smart car development program called the Intelligent Car Flagship Initiative. The goals of that program include: Autonomous Cruise Control Lane departure warning system Project AWAKE for drowsy drivers There are plenty of further uses for automation in relation to cars. These include: Adaptive cruise control Adaptive headlamps Advanced Automatic Collision Notification, such as OnStar Automatic Parking Automotive night vision with pedestrian detection Blind spot monitoring Driver Monitoring System

 Robotic car or self-driving car which may result in less-stressed "drivers", higher efficiency (the driver can do something else), increased safety and less pollution (e.g. via completely automated fuel control) Lane departure warning system Precrash system Traffic sign recognition Automatic parking Following another car on a motorway "enhanced" or "adaptive" cruise control, as used by Ford and Vauxhall Distance control assist as developed by Nissan. Dead man's switch there is a move to introduce deadman's braking into automotive application, primarily heavy vehicles, and there may also be a need to add penalty switches to cruise controls.

GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. It is maintained by the United States government and is freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver. The GPS program provides critical capabilities to military, civil and commercial users around the world. In addition, GPS is the backbone for modernizing the global air traffic system. The GPS project was developed in 1973 to overcome the limitations of previous navigation systems, integrating ideas from several predecessors, including a number of classified engineering design studies from the 1960s. GPS was created and realized by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and was originally run with 24 satellites. It became fully operational in 1994.

Advances in technology and new demands on the existing system have now led to efforts to modernize the GPS system and implement the next generation of GPS III satellites and Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX). Announcements from the Vice President and the White House in 1998 initiated these changes. In 2000, U.S. Congress authorized the modernization effort, referred to as GPS III. In addition to GPS, other systems are in use or under development. The Russian GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS) was in use by only the Russian military, until it was made fully available to civilians in 2007. There are also the planned European Union Galileo positioning system, Chinese Compass navigation system, and Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System.

ANTI LOCK BRAKING SYSTEM

An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is an automobile safety system that allows the wheels on a motor vehicle to continue interacting tractively with the road surface as directed by driver steering inputs while braking, preventing the wheels from locking up (that is, ceasing rotation) and therefore avoiding skidding. It is an automated system that uses the principles of threshold braking and cadence braking, that was practised by skilful drivers with previous generation nonABS braking systems. It does this at a much faster rate and with better control than a driver could manage. An ABS generally offers improved vehicle control and decreases stopping distances on dry and slippery surfaces for many drivers; however, on loose surfaces like gravel or snow-covered pavement, an ABS can significantly increase braking distance, although still improving vehicle control. Since initial widespread use in production cars, anti-lock braking systems have evolved considerably. Recent versions not only prevent wheel lock under braking, but also electronically control the front-to-rear brake bias. This function, depending on its specific capabilities and implementation, is known as electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), traction control system, emergency brake assist, or electronic stability control (ESC). There are four main components to an ABS: speed sensors, valves, a pump, and a controller. Speed sensors The anti-lock braking system needs some way of knowing when a wheel is about to lock up. The speed sensors, which are located at each wheel, or in some cases in the differential, provide this information.

Valves There is a valve in the brake line of each brake controlled by the ABS. On some systems, the valve has three positions: In position one, the valve is open; pressure from the master cylinder is passed right through to the brake. In position two, the valve blocks the line, isolating that brake from the master cylinder. This prevents the pressure from rising further should the driver push the brake pedal harder. In position three, the valve releases some of the pressure from the brake. Pump Since the valve is able to release pressure from the brakes, there has to be some way to put that pressure back. That is what the pump does; when a valve reduces the pressure in a line, the pump is there to get the pressure back up.

Controller The controller is an ECU type unit in the car which receives information from each individual wheel speed sensor, in turn if a wheel loses traction the signal is sent to the controller, the controller will then limit the brakeforce (EBD) and activate the ABS modulator which actuates the braking valves on and off. Use There are many different variations and control algorithms for use in an ABS. One of the simpler systems works as follows: 1. The controller monitors the speed sensors at all times. It is looking for decelerations in the wheel that are out of the ordinary. Right before a wheel locks up, it will experience a rapid deceleration. If left unchecked, the wheel would stop much more quickly than any car could. It might take a car five seconds to stop from 60 mph (96.6 km/h) under ideal conditions, but a wheel that locks up could stop spinning in less than a second. 2. The ABS controller knows that such a rapid deceleration is impossible, so it reduces the pressure to that brake until it sees an acceleration, then it increases the pressure until it sees the deceleration again. It can do this very quickly, before the tire can actually significantly change speed. The result is that the tire slows down at the same rate as the car, with the brakes keeping the tires very near the point at which they will start to lock up. This gives the system maximum braking power. 3. When the ABS system is in operation the driver will feel a pulsing in the brake pedal; this comes from the rapid opening and closing of the valves. This pulsing also tells the driver that the ABS has been triggered. Some ABS systems can cycle up to 16 times per second.

WADGPS
Wide Area DGPS aims to overcome the baseline distance limitation by generating corrections for users over a large portion of the earth. In WADGPS, networks of reference stations are used to generate corrections, either in the form of a correction vector or as a single weighted correction, for each satellite. In contrast with LADGPS, only a fraction of the number of reference stations that would be needed to cover the same area is used in order to attain a similar or better level of accuracy. The most common approach is to determine each error component individually, forming a correction vector for each satellite. The correction vector consists of the satellite ephemeris, clock related and atmospheric propagation errors (Ashkenazi et al, 1995; Retscher, 2001). An alternative approach that requires simpler algorithms and has been employed by various networks is to use several reference stations to compute a weighted correction for the user, incorporating all error sources in a given correction value. The DGPS algorithms that are employed in each of those cases can be divided into two main categories: state space domain for the former and observation domain for the latter. The same categorisation applies to error determination in Network RTK. The system consists of a number of reference stations distributed in the area of interest, a central processing facility (CPF) and a data link. Depending on the extent of the network there might be a need for more than one processing facility and data link. Information is sent to geostationary satellites that relay the signal processed on the ground and sent into space in order to overcome the range limitation for data transmission by the use of terrestrial links. WADGPS networks cover much greater areas than the LADGPS networks, such as continental or even globally sized networks with attainable accuracies that can reach the decimetre level. Cannon et al [2002] compare various established WADGPS services and conclude that the network with the best performance provided attainable accuracy of about 1 m horizontally and about 1.5 m vertically RMS in real time. Kechine et al [2003] have shown through an independent experimental verification that with NASAs Global Differential GPS service the accuracy improves by almost one order of magnitude 10cm horizontal and 20cm vertical for kinematic applications.

The Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) concept follows from the WADGPS concept and is based on transmitting differential corrections and integrity messages for navigation satellites that are visible to reference stations deployed across an entire continent. One example is the North American WAAS that covers the United States, Canada and Mexico. In Europe EGNOS is used while JAPAN is covered by MSAS and India is under the development phase of GAGAN. All the above mentioned systems were developed in accordance with the same standards and therefore are interoperable and compatible.

POSITION LOCATION SYSTEM

The Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS) is a secure, jam resistant, computer controlled communications network that distributes near real-time tactical information, generally integrated into radio sets, and coordinated by a Network Control Station. It is primarily used for data distribution and position location and reporting. It enhances command and control of tactical units by providing commanders with the location of friendly units. It was first fielded by the US Army in 1987. EPLRS is a Time Division Multiple Access System that uses a frequency hopping, spread spectrum waveform in the UHF band.[4] It incorporates the Thornton family of COMSEC devices, and has the capability for Over the Air Rekeying (OTAR). EPLRS uses the Army Data Distribution System version of the X.25 CCITT and IEEE 802.3 protocols to interface with Army Tactical Command and Control System (ATCCS). Situation Awareness Data Link (SADL), installed on USAF F-16 and A-10 fighters, coordinates with EPLRS for ground support missions.

REFERENCE
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