ARCHER - Architecture and Safety for Autonomous Heavy Vehicles

Purpose and goal

The purpose of project Archer was to develop principles and methods for developing autonomous heavy vehicles with a legacy architecture within the areas of architecture, safety and verification, 3 areas deemed central for industrialization of such vehicles. A method was devised for exploring and developing an existing architecture with respect to robustness against different fault types, under uncertain but traceable conditions. management of risk during operation and a simulation environment for scenario verification has also been studied.

Expected results and effects

The results that were expected from the project have largely been achieved. One licentiate thesis has been successfully defended, in total about 20 scientific publications have been published within the three areas of Archer research, and 2 patents application have been filed. The results have been continuously disseminated at a number of national and international conferences and symposia, as well as at Scania where also the case studies were presented, and the methodology ATRIUM were successfully applied.

Planned approach and implementation

The project has been carried out as 3 PhD student projects, within architecture, safety and verification, led by Scania with a joint steering committee consisting of Scania, KTH including PhD supervisors. Quarterly, workshops complemented by regular bi-weekly telephone conferences have been milestones for planning and synchronization of activities and results. The PhD students have conducted case studies, published articles, participated and presented their work at various conferences and e.g. within the research network ICES, as well as supervised master thesis students.