Miniature Testbed for Validating Multi-Agent Cooperative Autonomous Driving

2025-11-14

AI Summary

Existing testbeds lack intelligent roadside infrastructure with integrated perception, edge computing, and communication capabilities, hindering real-time multi-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) cooperative autonomous driving validation. Method: This work develops CIVAT—a 1:15-scale miniature cooperative autonomous driving test platform—comprising onboard sensors, intelligent roadside units (RSUs) with embedded edge computing modules, and a scaled urban map. It establishes the first full-stack V2X infrastructure on a miniature platform, leveraging ROS2 and a shared Wi-Fi network to enable low-latency publish-subscribe–based V2V/V2I communication, while synergistically fusing infrastructure-assisted perception and edge-coordinated decision-making. Contribution/Results: Experiments demonstrate effective support for canonical scenarios such as intersection cooperative passage, significantly enhancing perception robustness and collaborative decision reliability in complex traffic environments. CIVAT bridges a critical gap by providing a lightweight yet high-fidelity platform for cooperative autonomous driving verification.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Computer Vision: Vision for Robotics & Autonomous Driving
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Plan Execution and Monitoring

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Cloud, edge and content delivery systems for the Web
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements

Abstract

Cooperative autonomous driving, which extends vehicle autonomy by enabling real-time collaboration between vehicles and smart roadside infrastructure, remains a challenging yet essential problem. However, none of the existing testbeds employ smart infrastructure equipped with sensing, edge computing, and communication capabilities. To address this gap, we design and implement a 1:15-scale miniature testbed, CIVAT, for validating cooperative autonomous driving, consisting of a scaled urban map, autonomous vehicles with onboard sensors, and smart infrastructure. The proposed testbed integrates V2V and V2I communication with the publish-subscribe pattern through a shared Wi-Fi and ROS2 framework, enabling information exchange between vehicles and infrastructure to realize cooperative driving functionality. As a case study, we validate the system through infrastructure-based perception and intersection management experiments.

Problem

• Validating cooperative autonomous driving with smart infrastructure
• Addressing lack of testbeds with sensing-edge-communication capabilities
• Enabling V2V/V2I communication for real-time vehicle-infrastructure collaboration

Innovation

• Miniature testbed with smart infrastructure capabilities
• Integrated V2V and V2I communication via Wi-Fi ROS2
• Scaled autonomous vehicles with cooperative driving functionality