Autonomous driving on vehicle test tracks: overview, implementation and results

This article describes the implementation of the cooperative project “Autonomous Driving” which had been set up for the automation of vehicle test drives on the VOLKSWAGEN approved ground. As part of the concept, ordinary mass-produced cars can be transformed into automatically driven cars within a few hours by skilled persons. In the project, two test vehicles were equipped with sensors, computers and actuators (driving robots). They can be driven by a robot while the sensor system observes the entire surroundings to be able to react on obstacles. Furthermore, the vehicle control can be overruled by an electronic copilot in case of an emergency