Autonomous Shuttles for Last-Mile Connectivity

TL;DR

This paper presents an initial implementation of an autonomous shuttle designed for last-mile transportation in complex environments, detailing its architecture, components, and performance evaluation.

Contribution

It introduces a functional autonomous shuttle system with a modular architecture and evaluates its key components for operation in crowded, unmarked areas.

Findings

Successful waypoint following demonstrated

Effective obstacle detection and avoidance achieved

LiDAR-based sign detection and pedestrian communication implemented

Abstract

This paper describes an autonomous shuttle which targets providing last-mile transportation. Often, this involves operation in crowded areas with high levels of pedestrian traffic, and little to no lane markings or traffic control. We aim to create a functional shuttle to be improved upon in the future as new robust solutions are developed to replace the current components. An initial implementation of such a shuttle presented, detailing the overall architecture, controller structure, waypoint following, obstacle detection and avoidance, LiDAR based sign detection, and pedestrian communication. The performance of each component is evaluated, and future improvements are discussed.