Autonomous Vehicle Control using Image Processing

This thesis describes the design of an inexpensive autonomous vehicle system using a small scaled model vehicle. The system is capable of operating in two different modes: telerobotic manual mode and automated driving mode. In telerobotic manual mode, the model vehicle is controlled by a human driver at a stationary remote control station with full-scale steering wheel and gas pedal. The vehicle can either be an unmodified toy remote-control car or a vehicle equipped with wireless radio modem for communication and microcontroller for speed control. In both cases the vehicle also carries a video camera capable of transmitting video images back to the remote control station where they are displayed on a monitor. In automated driving mode, the vehicle's lateral movement is controlled by a lateral control algorithm. The objective of this algorithm is to keep the vehicle in the center of a road. Position and orientation of the vehicle are determined by an image processing algorithm identifying a white middle marker on the road. Two different algorithm for image processing have been designed: one based on the pixel intensity profile and the other on vanishing points in the image plane. For the control algorithm itself, two designs are introduced as well: a simple classical P-control and a control scheme based on H-Infinity. The design and testing of this autonomous vehicle system are performed in the Flexible Low-cost Automated Scaled Highway (FLASH) laboratory at Virginia Tech.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1997

Author dc:creator

• Schlegel, Nikolai

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Bay, John S.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Kachroo, Pushkin
• Nunnally, Charles E.

• autonomous vehicle
• lateral control
• image processing
• telerobotic operation
• H-Infinity control

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-283421290973280

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/36580