One Stack to Rule them All: To Drive Automated Vehicles, and Reach for the 4th level

TL;DR

This paper presents a modular, scalable autonomous driving stack adaptable to various vehicles and tested in real urban environments, enabling easier integration of new algorithms for Level 4 automation.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible, modular autonomous driving architecture that supports rapid testing and deployment across different vehicle types and real-world scenarios.

Findings

Successfully deployed in urban passenger transport.

Supports integration of new algorithms easily.

Operates reliably across diverse vehicle platforms.

Abstract

Most automated driving functions are designed for a specific task or vehicle. Most often, the underlying architecture is fixed to specific algorithms to increase performance. Therefore, it is not possible to deploy new modules and algorithms easily. In this paper, we present our automated driving stack which combines both scalability and adaptability. Due to the modular design, our stack allows for a fast integration and testing of novel and state-of-the-art research approaches. Furthermore, it is flexible to be used for our different testing vehicles, including modified EasyMile EZ10 shuttles and different passenger cars. These vehicles differ in multiple ways, e.g. sensor setups, control systems, maximum speed, or steering angle limitations. Finally, our stack is deployed in real world environments, including passenger transport in urban areas. Our stack includes all components needed for operating an autonomous vehicle, including localization, perception, planning, controller, and additional safety modules. Our stack is developed, tested, and evaluated in real world traffic in multiple test sites, including the Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-W\"urttemberg.