Team AnnieWAY's Autonomous System

This paper reports on AnnieWAY, an autonomous vehicle that is capable of driving through urban scenarios and that has successfully entered the finals of the DARPA Urban Challenge 2007 competition. After describing the main challenges imposed and the major hardware components, we outline the underlying software structure and focus on selected algorithms. A recent laser scanner plays the prominent role in the perception of the environment. It measures range and reflectivity for each pixel. While the former is used to provide 3D scene geometry, the latter allows robust lane marker detection. Mission and maneuver selection is conducted via a concurrent hierarchical state machine that specifically ascertains behavior in accordance with California traffic rules. We conclude with a report of the results achieved during the competition.