Bhatt, Neel P. (The University of Texas at Austin), Zhang, Ruihe (University of Waterloo), Ning, Minghao (University of Waterloo), Ahmad, Alghooneh (University of Waterloo), Sun, Chen (University of Waterloo), Panahandeh, Pouya (University of Waterloo), Mohammadbagher, Ehsan (University of Warterloo), Ecclestone, Ted (University of Waterloo), MacCallum, Ben (University of Waterloo), Hashemi, Ehsan (University of Alberta), Khajepour, Amir (University of Waterloo)

WATonoBus: Field-Tested All-Weather Autonomous Shuttle Technology

Scheduled for presentation during the Invited Session "Trustworthy Diagnosis and Prognosis in Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility" (WeBT10), Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 15:10−15:30, Salon 18

2024 IEEE 27th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), September 24- 27, 2024, Edmonton, Canada

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on December 26, 2024

Abstract

All-weather autonomous vehicle operation poses significant challenges, encompassing modules from perception and decision-making to path planning and control. The complexity arises from the need to address adverse weather conditions such as rain, snow, and fog across the autonomy stack. Conventional model-based single-module approaches often lack holistic integration with upstream or downstream tasks. We tackle this problem by proposing a multi-module and modular system architecture with considerations for adverse weather across the perception level, through features such as snow covered curb detection, to decision-making and safety monitoring. Through daily weekday service on the WATonoBus platform for almost two years, we demonstrate that our proposed approach is capable of addressing adverse weather conditions and provide valuable insights from edge cases observed during operation.