The OPAL System and Testconcept for Urban Autonomous Driving

Andreas Folkers, Constantin Wellhausen, Matthias Rick, Xibo Li, Lennart Evers, Verena Schwarting, Joachim Clemens, Philipp Dittmann, Mahmood Shubbak, Tom Bustert, Gabriel Zachmann, Kerstin Schill, Christof Büskens

Abstract: The development of autonomous vehicles for urban driving is widely considered as a challenging task as it requires intensive interdisciplinary expertise. The present article presents an overview of the research project OPA 3 L (Optimally Assisted, Highly Automated, Autonomous and Cooperative Vehicle Navigation and Localization). It highlights the hardware and software architecture as well as the developed methods. This comprises algorithms for localization, perception, high- and low-level decision making and path planning, as well as model predictive control. The research project contributes a cross-platform holistic approach applicable for a wide range of real-world scenarios. The developed framework is implemented and tested on a real research vehicle, miniature vehicles, and a simulation system.