Automation Challenges of Socio-technical Systems

5 Exteroceptive Fault-tolerant Control for Autonomous and Safe Driving

5.1. Introduction

In recent decades, the pace at which technological advances have become available has sharply accelerated. In the last 30 years, the personal computer, the Internet, mobile networks as well as many other innovations have transformed human lives. Beyond science fiction-like visions, we have searched for substitutes for repetitive, physically challenging tasks, replacing them with machines or robots reaching beyond human capabilities or with computer programs under the supervision of human beings. Among these machines, the automobile has revolutionized the daily transport of millions of people and the number of cars has grown steadily since the democratization of the vehicle. This explosion of the number of cars gave rise to many problems, such as traffic jams, air pollution due to greenhouse gases and soil pollution associated with liquid and solid discharges (motor oils and heavy metals). Accidents are still one of the biggest road-related problems. The annual report of the French Road Safety Observatory (L'observatoire national interministériel de la sécurité routière – ONISR), estimated for 2015 [ONS 16], revealed that the number of deaths related to road traffic accidents had increased by 1.7% in comparison with the previous year, producing a total of 3,616 fatalities. Even though this number is lower compared to the 1980s, it is still unacceptable. At the global scale, more than 1.25 ...