Emergency Vehicle Detection using V2X : Proof of Concept Demonstration

[damodarRohit]

I would like to demonstrate a reference implementation of Emergency Vehicle Avoidance by integrating Danlaw V2X OBU with Autoware Universe on a Jetson AGX Orin Platform.

The scenario is depicted in the video clip attached below.
In the first loop, the Emergency Vehicle is in its Normal Parked Mode and hence the Ego Vehicle follows its planned straight lane path.
In the second loop, the Emergency Vehicle is in EMERGENCY Mode and starts broadcasting the corresponding V2X Message. Ego Vehicle moves over to the adjacent lane as it detects the Emergency Vehicle.

Autoware.V2X.Emergency.Vehicle.Demo-1.mp4

High-level design

The sequence diagram for this implementation is as shown below.

sequenceDiagram
participant Emergency Vehicle OBU
participant Ego Vehicle OBU
box rgb(100,100,100) Autoware
participant V2X OBU Driver
participant V2X Perception (Dummy Perception)
participant Special Vehicle Avoidance (Planning)
participant Autoware Planning
end

Emergency Vehicle OBU-->>Ego Vehicle OBU: V2X SRM Request

Ego Vehicle OBU->>V2X OBU Driver: UDP<br>Special Vehicle Info

V2X OBU Driver->>V2X Perception (Dummy Perception): /special_vehicle_info<br>-vehicle_type<br>-vehicle_location<br>-vehicle_dimensions

V2X OBU Driver->>Special Vehicle Avoidance (Planning): /special_vehicle_info<br>-vehicle_type<br>-vehicle_location<br>-vehicle_dimensions

V2X Perception (Dummy Perception)->>Autoware Planning: /perception/v2x/detected_objects

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The SRM (Signal Request Message) as defined in V2X ITS standard (SAE J2735) is used for communicating information about presence of emergency vehicles. The emergency vehicle will send SRM messages to request pre-emption at traffic intersections or on request by Emergency vehicle User.
The Autoware robot chassis is equipped with a Danlaw V2X OBU. A separate module running on this OBU processes all received V2X messages and listens for SRM request. Whenever an SRM request is received, this information is relayed to Autoware via UDP.
An OBU driver module running alongside Autoware polls for OBU UDP packets and publishes a /special_vehicle_info topic. This topic contains information like whether special vehicle is present, vehicle location, dimensions, etc.
A V2X Perception module injects a dummy obstacle at the special vehicle location using Dummy perception module of Autoware. For the purposes of this demo, the special vehicle location, orientation and dimensions are pre-defined. This information can also be obtained via V2X BSM Message.
In addition to the V2X Perception module, a Special Vehicle Planning module ensures the Ego vehicle moves over to adjacent lane by publishing a checkpoint pose to the Planning module. This checkpoint pose will be on the adjacent lane and can also be specified distance away from the emergency vehicle.

[damodarRohit]

Here is the presentation from API WG meeting related to the above PoC

Emergency Vehicle Avoidance Reference Implementation.pptx

A future proposal for V2X integration for Obstacle detection is discussed at https://github.com/orgs/autowarefoundation/discussions/4055

@mitsudome-r

[isamu-takagi]

@damodarRohit Thank you for sharing the demo. I have one question. https://github.com/orgs/autowarefoundation/discussions/4055 uses BSM, but this demo uses SRM. Is using SRM a temporary implementation for demo? Or will future proposals use both SRM and BSM?

[damodarRohit]

The intention of future proposal is not limited to Emergency/ Special Vehicles but to all surrounding vehicles within V2X range. Hence use of BSM is proposed.
Specific to the case of emergency vehicles, in ITS North American standard, the part II of BSM that contains information about Special Vehicles is optional. Hence, SRM might also be required in case the BSM does not have this information.

The specific V2X message used can vary between region-specific standards too. This is expected to be handled/ abstracted by the V2X OBU Driver module or the V2X Perception module.