From drive-by-wire to autonomous vehicle: Urban freight vehicle perspectives

Freight Urban RoBOTic vehicle (FURBOT) is a complete drive-by-wire vehicle expected to perform autonomously in an urban setting. This upgrading has raised issues that need to be resolved/addressed for the vehicle to achieve a higher level of autonomy. This research addresses two of these main issues. The First is the legal framework/licensing issue necessary to be addressed for the vehicle to be insured and legally drive on public roads. The second is the changes and upgrading the vehicle must go through to become a complete autonomous freight handling vehicle. The outcome of this research led to the decision for correct categorization of the vehicle for resolving its licensing issue and its legal status on the European roads by understanding the limitations of the vehicle, which includes vehicle current state and its structural properties. An additional contribution of this research is identifying the software and hardware changes the vehicle has to go through to be fully autonomous. This includes identification of correct sensors and their placement and quantities. In addition, in-depth study for software identification for the vehicle is provided resulting in favorable choice for an off-the-shelf software. Additionally, foreseeable issues, expectations from the vehicle and requirements (considering its demonstration as an autonomous vehicle) that need to be fulfilled are also highlighted. For demonstration site, use cases and site dynamics are also studied for achieving autonomy. Fulfillment of these requirements is necessary for the vehicle to demonstrate autonomous navigation and freight handling for SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) H2020 project for delivering freight in an urban setting.