Development of a Driverless Personal Mobility Pod

Abstract

The paper describes design and development of a new `Personal Mobility Pod' using low cost systems proposed for use in urban areas. Recent studies have shown increased use of personal mobility, suggesting the scope for further research. Adding to Mobility-on-Demand and vehicle share, such mobility pods could bridge the gap in driverless vehicle research and possibly be a solution to road traffic and congestion in urban areas. The proposed platform is a combination of sensory fusion with feedback managed by a main controller. The navigation system considers offline mapping and localisation with user interface, illustrating waypoints through Google Maps. A Pure Pursuit technique is used to track the vehicle along the given path. The scooters robust, reliable, safe design allows operation in various terrains. The developed platform is moreover proposed as a suitable test platform for driverless vehicle sub-system for testing and experimentation. The reliability of the pod has been tested and validated in two stages: laboratory testing and field testing.