A Self Driving Car Architecture in ROS2
In this paper we report on an architecture for a self driving car that is based on ROS2. Self driving cars have to take decisions based on their sensory input in real time, providing high reliability with a strong demand in functional safety. In principle, self driving cars are robots. However, typical robot software, in general, and the previous version of the Robot Operating System (ROS) in particular, does not always meet these requirements. With the successor ROS2 the situation has changed and it might be considered as a solution for automated and autonomous driving. Existing robotic software based on ROS was not ready for safety critical applications like self driving cars. We propose an architecture for using ROS2 for a self driving car that enables safe and reliable real time behaviour, but keeping the advantages of ROS such as a distributed architecture and standardised message types. First experiments with an automated real passenger car at lower and higher speed levels show that our approach seems feasible for autonomous driving under the necessary real time conditions.
2020 International SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA Conference