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Fakultät für Informatik

Labs

Safety of Autonomous Systems

Portable Experiment Data Acquisition Lab (PEDAL)

We run a sensor-equipped bicycle for traffic data acquisition. The bicycle features

  • a 120 degree solid-state Lidar,
  • two front- and rear-mounted stereoscopic Full HD cameras,
  • a gnss-aided inertia navigation system, and
  • a high performance mobile computation unit.

The sensors are placed in the same spot as on a passenger car in order to ensure comparability.

Why using a bicycle instead of a car?

The usage of a bicycle as a low-cost lab has various advantages over a car:

  • easy installation and quick modification of the sensor stack,
  • versatile usages in different surroundings, and
  • access to the test vehicle for student projects and final theses.

Additionally, using a bicycle allows for certain maneuvers in road traffic that would be prohibited when driving a car. These can then be detected using our automated driving verification stack. This involves rules like

  • running a red light (when there is a green arrow only for bicycles),
  • driving on a one-way road in the opposite direction (when permitted for bicycles), and
  • driving in pedestrian and bicycle zones.