A Fleet of Miniature Cars for Experiments in Cooperative Driving
This provides a practical testbed for researchers and educators in autonomous driving, though it is incremental as it builds on existing driver models and control strategies.
The authors tackled the lack of low-cost platforms for multi-car navigation research by developing a fleet of 16 miniature robotic cars, demonstrating benefits of cooperative driving in physical multi-lane experiments.
We introduce a unique experimental testbed that consists of a fleet of 16 miniature Ackermann-steering vehicles. We are motivated by a lack of available low-cost platforms to support research and education in multi-car navigation and trajectory planning. This article elaborates the design of our miniature robotic car, the Cambridge Minicar, as well as the fleet's control architecture. Our experimental testbed allows us to implement state-of-the-art driver models as well as autonomous control strategies, and test their validity in a real, physical multi-lane setup. Through experiments on our miniature highway, we are able to tangibly demonstrate the benefits of cooperative driving on multi-lane road topographies. Our setup paves the way for indoor large-fleet experimental research.