The BRAiVE Autonomous Ground Vehicle Platform

The interest in having an autonomous vehicle platform is driven by the long term objective, aimed by many research centers, of changing the transportation system world to move people in a safer and more efficient way. The BRAiVE vehicle presented in this paper is designed for this goal and with the idea of reaching it trough a series of steps, each one introducing more advanced systems and more complex levels of automation. A section describing the state of the art in this field introduces the paper showing the features of other similar projects around the world and pointing out BRAiVE's innovations. The paper focuses on the technical aspects involved in this project. Starting from the design choices, such as sensor placement, coverage or actuators performance, going trough development issues and solutions adopted to reach a high integration level for preserving the external look together with good ergonomics for the interiors. Conclusions collect the demonstrations in which effectiveness and the versatility of the vehicle has been shown.