An expert system for automated highway driving

The applicability of expert systems to the task of guiding an automobile on a limited-access highway is studied. The vehicle is assumed to be equipped with sensors detecting the surrounding traffic, road signs, and road geometry as well as control logic and actuators governing the throttle, steering angle, and brakes. The goal of the expert system is to issue commands to the controllers, given the traffic situation, traffic signals, road signs, and the strategy chosen by the driver. The system presented consists of a rule base providing the required driving knowledge, a backward chaining inference engine that performs the reasoning, a knowledge-base compiler that optimizes the reasoning process, and a highway-traffic simulator that simulates vehicles on a highway, either controlled by a preset strategy or by instance of the expert system. The implementation and the testing environment, including the highway traffic simulator and simulation results, is described. The benefits associated with the use of the system are summarized.<>