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- A Drone Secure Handover Architecture validated in a Software in the Loop EnvironmentPublication . Vasconcelos Filho, Ênio; Gomes, Filipe; Monteiro, Stéphane; Penna, Sergio; Koubaa, Anis; Tovar, Eduardo; Severino, RicardoThe flight and control capabilities of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) have increased significantly with recent research for civilian and commercial applications. As a result, these devices are becoming capable of flying ever greater distances, accomplishing flights beyond line of sight (BVLOS). However, given the need for safety guarantees, these flights are increasingly subject to regulations. Handover operations between controllers and the security of the exchanged data are a challenge for implementing these devices in various applications. This paper presents a secure handover architecture between control stations, using a Software in the Loop (SIL) model to validate the adopted strategies and mitigate the time between simulation and real systems implementations. This architecture is developed in two separate modules that perform the security and handover processes. Finally, we validate the proposed architecture with several drone flights on a virtual testbed.
- Cooperative Vehicular Platooning: A Multi- Dimensional Survey Towards Enhanced Safety, Security and ValidationPublication . Vasconcelos Filho, Ênio; Santos, Pedro Miguel; Koubaa, Anis; Tovar, Eduardo; Severino, RicardoCooperative Vehicular Platooning (Co-VP) is a paradigmatic example of a Cooperative Cyber-Physical System (Co-CPS), which holds the potential to vastly improve road safety by partially removing humans from the driving task. However, the challenges are substantial, as the domain involves several topics, such as control theory, communications, vehicle dynamics, security, and traffic engineering, that must be coupled to describe, develop and validate these systems of systems accurately. This work presents a comprehensive survey of significant and recent advances in Co-VP relevant fields. We start by overviewing the work on control strategies and underlying communication infrastructures, focusing on their interplay. We also address a fundamental concern by presenting a cyber-security overview regarding these systems. Furthermore, we present and compare the primary initiatives to test and validate those systems, including simulation tools, hardware-in-the-loop setups, and vehicular testbeds. Finally, we highlight a few open challenges in the Co-VP domain. This work aims to provide a fundamental overview of highly relevant works on Co-VP topics, particularly by exposing their inter-dependencies, facilitating a guide that will support further developments in this challenging field.
- RosDrive: An Open-Source ROS-Based Vehicular Simulator for STEM Control Systems Classes TutorialPublication . Vasconcelos Filho, Ênio; Yudi, Jones; Abdelkader, Mohamed; Koubaa, Anis; Tovar, EduardoThe study of control systems in the engineering courses is quite complex, given the difficulty of some teachers in exemplifying and allowing the student to understand how such systems affect the environment. In this context, the STEM methodologies aim to fill this gap between the traditional classes and the student comprehension of the topic through the active learning process. Realistic open-source simulators can be interpreted as one solution for this STEM implementation, allowing students to test, modify and create different configurations and sensors with a low-cost environment. This work presents a flexible open-source 3D simulation framework, based on ROS, of a line follower vehicle, using an embedded PID controller, a camera for processing and detecting lines, and sonars for detecting and avoiding obstacles. This simulator integrates several controller systems, allowing the student to build consistent skills in control and related areas, analyze the impacts of models configurations, and extends its knowledge to new techniques.
- COPADRIVe - A Realistic Simulation Framework for Cooperative Autonomous Driving ApplicationsPublication . Vieira, Bruno; Severino, Ricardo; Vasconcelos Filho, Ênio; Koubaa, Anis; Tovar, EduardoSafety-critical cooperative vehicle applications such as platooning, require extensive testing, however, the complexity and cost involved in this process, increasingly demands for realistic simulation tools to ease the validation of such technologies, helping to bridge the gap between development and real-word deployment. In this paper we propose a realistic co-simulation framework for cooperative vehicles, that integrates Gazebo, an advanced robotics simulator, with the OMNeT++ network simulator, over the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework, supporting the simulation of advanced cooperative applications such as platooning, in realistic scenarios.
- An Integrated Lateral and Longitudinal Look Ahead Controller for Cooperative Vehicular PlatooningPublication . Vasconcelos Filho, Ênio; Koubaa, Anis; Severino, Ricardo; Tovar, EduardoCooperative Vehicular Platooning (CoVP), has been emerging as a challenging Intelligent Traffic Systems application, promising to bring-about several safety and societal benefits. Relying on V2V communications to control such cooperative and automated actions brings several advantages. In this work, we present a Look Ahead PID controller for CoVP that solely relies upon V2V communications, together with a method to reduce the disturbance propagation in the platoon. The platooning controller also implements a solution to solve the cutting corner problem, keeping the platooning alignment. We evaluate its performance and limitations in realistic simulation scenarios, analyzing the stability and lateral errors of the CoVP, proving that such V2V enabled solutions can be effectively implemented.
- Improving the Performance of Cooperative Platooning with Restricted Message Trigger ThresholdsPublication . Vasconcelos Filho, Ênio; Santos, Pedro Miguel; Severino, Ricardo; Koubaa, Anis; Tovar, EduardoCooperative Vehicular Platooning (Co-VP) is one of the most prominent and challenging applications of Intelligent Traffic Systems. To support such vehicular communications, the ETSI ITS G5 standard specifies event-based communication profiles, triggered by kinematic parameters such as speed. The standard defines a set of threshold values for such triggers but no careful assessment in realistic platooning scenarios has been done to confirm the suitability of such values. In this work, we investigate the safety and performance limitations of such parameters in a realistic platooning co-simulation environment. We then propose more conservative threshold values, that we formalize as a new profile, and evaluate their impact in the longitudinal and lateral behaviour of a vehicular platoon as it carries out complex driving scenarios. Furthermore, we analyze the overhead introduced in the network by applying the new threshold values. We conclude that a pro-active message transmission scheme leads to improved platoon performance for highway scenarios, notably an increase greater than 40% in the longitudinal performance of the platoon, while not incurring in a significant network overhead. The obtained results also demonstrated an improved platoon performance for semi-urban scenarios, including obstacles and curves, where the heading error decreases in 26%, with slight network overhead.
- Towards a Cooperative Robotic Platooning TestbedPublication . Vasconcelos Filho, Ênio; Nuno, Guedes; Mestre, Miguel; Vieira, Bruno; Severino, Ricardo; Koubaa, Anis; Tovar, EduardoThe deployment of information and communication technologies in vehicles and into the transportation infrastructure in general, holds the promise of significant improvements to traffic safety and efficiency. The ETSI ITS-G5 standard presents itself as a viable and already available solution, to enable such intelligent social and mobility scenarios in the near future, including cooperative and autonomous vehicle platooning. However, the usage of wireless communications in safety-critical scenarios poses several challenges, and their reliability and safety must be adequately tested and validated. To do this, the safety concerns and cost of relying on real vehicles is prohibitive for early deployments. A solution lies in the use of robotic platforms, since these are relatively cheaper and allow to partially test real platforms and components, as well as different control mechanisms. This work presents the development of a 1/10 scale Cooperative Platooning Robotic Testbed with such aim. Real ITS-G5 On Board Units (OBU) were integrated in the vehicles for communications support and a cooperative control algorithm that solely relies on communications was successfully implemented.