The official presentation of the tour will take place on Wednesday, May 27th, 1998, at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Parma, at 2:30 pm, room F.
Please check http://millemiglia.ce.unipr.it for more details, ...and stay tuned.
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M I L L E M I G L I A I N A U T O M A T I C O
The Demo of the ARGO Vehicle
Dip. di Ingegneria dell'Informazione Universita` di Parma
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in cooperation with TIM Progetto Finalizzato Trasporti II Telecom Italia Mobile
1. PRESENTATION
The prototype vehicle ARGO (a Lancia Thema 2000) has been developed at the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione of the University of Parma, under the framework of the Progetto Finalizzato Trasporti 2 of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). ARGO is able to compute its relative position with respect to the lane, to extract the geometry of the road, and to localize eventual obstacles obstructing the driving path.
A computing engine processes the images acquired by a stereo vision system whose cameras are localized behind the windscreen, inside the vehicle; the results are used to drive an electric engine installed on the steering column, which provides automatic steering. The whole system is based on the processing of visual information in order to remove the possibility of inter-vehicle interference and does not need specific road infrastructures.
The original target of the project was the development of a system to improve road safety by controlling and supervising the driver activity. Further developments, however, allowed to extend the functionality to automatic driving: during the MILLEMIGLIA IN AUTOMATICO Tour, ARGO will drive in automatic mode.
In the world two other extensive tests have been conducted on public roads in the last few years: `No Hands Across America' by the CMU group (Pittsburgh, USA) and a trip from Munchen to Odense by the group of Universitat der Bundeswehr (Germany). The goal of our trip is to demonstrate that using only visual information and low-cost general purpose hardware it is possible to drive automatically and safely a vehicle under different road and environmental conditions.
2. DATES AND ITINERARY
Monday, June 1 1998 8.00 11.00 Parma - Torino.........................245 km 12.00 18.00 Demo & Seminar: IEN Galileo Ferraris, Torino 18.00 20.00 Torino - Milano - Pavia................175 km
Tuesday, June 2 1998 8.00 13.00 Demo & Seminar: DIS, Universita` di Pavia 14.00 18.00 Pavia - Milano - Padova - Ferrara......340 km
Wednesday, June 3 1998 8.00 11.00 Demo & Seminar: Universita` di Ferrara 12.00 15.30 Ferrara - Bologna - Ancona.............260 km 16.00 19.00 Demo & Seminar: Universita` di Ancona
Thursday, June 4 1998 8.30 13.00 Ancona - Pescara - Roma................365 km 14.00 19.00 Demo & Seminar: CNR - PFT II, Roma
Friday, June 5 1998 9.00 12.30 Roma - Firenze.........................280 km 15.00 18.30 Demo & Seminar: Universita` di Firenze
Saturday, June 6 1998 8.30 12.00 Firenze - Bologna - Parma..............195 km
Minor program variations may be announced on the Web page.
3. THE TEAM
Alberto Broggi, Massimo Bertozzi, Alessandra Fascioli Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Universita` di Parma
4. REAL TIME INFORMATION AND IMAGES
During the `MilleMiglia in Automatico' tour, thanks to the cooperation of TIM, Telecom Italia Mobile, ARGO will broadcast a live video stream to the Internet. A PC acquires images from a camera installed inside the vehicle and, using 2 independent GSM channels, sends the data to a Web Server (http://millemiglia.ce.unipr.it) accessible from any host on the Internet. Up-to-date information as well as live images acquired from the vehicle during the demo are available at:
http://millemiglia.ce.unipr.it
5. TECHNICAL DATA OF THE ARGO VEHICLE
* Lancia Thema 2000 * Led-based control panel * B/W cameras, f=0.6mm, 360 lines * On board 6'' color monitor * Trinocular acquisition system * Inverter generating 220V @ 50Hz * Odometer, Hall effect * Electric engine on steering column * PC Pentium MMX, 200MHz, Linux * Joystick for emergency situations * Analog/Digital I/O board * Stereo speakers
6. FUNCTIONALITIES
The system installed on ARGO allows the following functions:
MANUAL DRIVING: the system monitors the driver activity; in case of potential dangerous situations the system warns the driver with acoustic and optic signals SUPERVISED DRIVING: the system warns the driver with acoustic and optic signals and, in case of dangerous situations, takes the control of the vehicle AUTOMATIC DRIVING: the system drives automatically, following the lane and localizing obstacles on the path; the system is able to perform lane changes
________________________________________________________________________________ For information: Alberto Broggi, ARGO project coordinator Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione Universita` di Parma, Viale delle Scienze, 43100 PARMA, ITALY
Fax: +39-521-905723 E-Mail: broggi@ce.unipr.it WebSite: http://www.ce.unipr.it/people/broggi --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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