HIGH-ACCURACY MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR SECURE STEERING OF LARGE VEHICLES

A measurement system of high accuracy is of great influence for guidance for automated vehicles. This paper presents the description of the high-accuracy measurement system implemented on a large mobile vehicle, an articulated bus Volvo B10M of 18 m in length. Several experiments have been performed on the test lane, with small radii of curvature, where a guide rail has been embedded. The measurement system consists of a guiding mechanical system, which roll within a guide rail designed for this purpose. The measurement system is capable of sending the bus control system the angular position of the guide rail with respect to the current position of the bus. The measurement of the angular position of the guide rail is obtained by means of two incremental encoders with resolution up to 0.036 degrees. In addition, the measurement system acquires the advance speed data from the bus. In this paper several experimental results with the utilization of the measurement system are presented, with the purpose to develop the lateral and longitudinal control algorithms to be implemented in the bus.