In the last years, Tier ones and OEMs are prototyping and testing self-driving capabilities on top of embedded MPSoCs (Multiprocessor System on Chip), these architectures are commonly composed of more than general purpose processors, a complex memory hierarchy and high-performance accelerators. Consequently, many car and tech makers are implementing multiple applications with different functionalities and criticality levels in the same Electronic Control Unit (ECU). Nonetheless, by doing so, the scheduling and the management of shared resources become a very convoluted problem, especially on architectures with complex memory hierarchies. Unfortunately, a non-proper software integration can lead to a situation in which high critical tasks may be affected by less critical tasks. In this sense, many open-source projects rely on ROS (the most used framework in robotics) and consequently Linux for implementing self-driving cars, for instance Apollo or Autoware. However, ROS and general-purpose Linux distributions are far from being safe enough for the development and integration of safety critical applications. Thanks to the HERCULES framework, we developed and integrate a real autonomous driving system that partitions safety critical tasks from the non-critical ones as required in the ISO 26262. Our solution does not require a dedicated Real-Time platform, reducing in this way design and production costs because everything is integrated on a small low power embedded board i.e. NVIDIA Jetson TX2.

1. Real-Time Autonomous Driving
application on HERCULES framework
Francesco Gatti
3 May 2019
Modena

2. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Same algorithm, different results
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3. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Real-Time
- All executed task must finish before a
predefined deadline
- Reliable software
- Real-Time OS
- Certified hardware
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4. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Autonomous Driving is complex
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5. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Real-Time
- All executed task must finish before a
predefined deadline
- Not every task needs Real-Time
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6. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
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7. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Our Autonomous Driving stack
Localize
Position
Filter
Local
Planner
Global
Planner
Actuation
Object
Detection
Object
Tracker
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8. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Our Autonomous Driving stack - critical tasks
Localize
Position
Filter
Local
Planner
Global
Planner
Actuation
Object
Detection
Object
Tracker
8

9. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Software setup
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Hardware
Best Effort OS
Hardware
Hypervisor
Best Effort OS
Real-Time
OS

10. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Hardware setup
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IPC JETSON TX2

11. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
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12. Francesco Gatti
San Francisco - 15 May 2019
Thanks
Francesco Gatti - 189382@studenti.unimore.it
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Autonomous Driving Team