When space technologies enable services for the Autonomous and driverless Transportation of persons

Space technologies have enabled a new era in the context of robotics and autonomous systems, thanks to GPS, RTK localization and soon to come Galileo. This paper introduces one of the services that can now be provided in the field of ground transportation: the autonomous transportation of persons by cybercars. Cybercars are driverless autonomous vehicles that can provide point-to-point and on-demand transportation services and can be operated in fleets to optimize the quality of service. They rely on GNSS information for the precise localization of the vehicles, combined with hybridation techniques to improve availability and quality of the localization as well as redundancy for improved safety. This new approach of shared public transport can be applied to all the protected sites receiving a high concentration of people having to move on relatively short distances (few kms) in indoor or outdoor environments. Among the protected places being able to receive cybercars one can quote: Inner city centers, Industrials or academicals campuses, Public parks and resorts, Airports, Fairs, etc. This paper presents the results of an experimentation carried out within the French MobiVIP project, that also applies results achieved in two European funded projects: Cybercars2 and INT-MANUS. This experimentation concerns the circulation of a cybercar (robuCab, developed by ROBOSOFT) in a pedestrian environment. The aim of this experimentation was the validation of the technical and safety aspects of the vehicle. It concerns also the acceptance of the use of a cybercar by the public. This 4 weeks experimentation allowed the transportation of approximately 500 persons. Robosoft supplies advanced mobile robotics solutions to drastically reduce the cost of services in transport, thanks to its line of mobile robots, its embedded technology of control systems, and its expertise demonstrated in various fields of service robotics since 1985, including research. In this article we will present the new architecture of control developed by Robosoft for the control of its Cybercars: the RobuBOX_TM. We will present then the methods of localization and navigation used for the experimentation. This localization is based on the combined use of RTK DGPS system and odometric information. Based on this localization, the method of navigation used by ROBOSOFT to manage the displacement of the vehicle will be presented. As the cybercar is circulating in a pedestrian zone, safety is very critical. The tools used by ROBOSOFT (sensors and methods) allowing the cybercar to circulate without danger in the middle of the pedestrians will also be presented. Finally, we will present the framework of the ROBOSOFT experimentation carried out in the city of Anglet. We will also present the results obtained through the strong and the weak points of our approach.