Future of transport is in autonomous driving. Autonomous driving promises safe travel thereby reducing accidents. An autonomous vehicle can sense its surroundings and drive itself through the pre-planned path [1]. The vehicle senses its surroundings using sensors like radar, lidar, camera and GPS.
This paper focuses on modifying an available All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV), quad bike using various actuation mechanisms into an autonomous driving vehicle. The steering is a crucial unit which needs to be actuated as a part of autonomous driving. Automation along with the relocation of throttle and brake from handlebar to foot pedal is also done as a part of autonomous driving. Therefore the ATV has to be modified to implement the following automation mechanisms.
The steering actuation unit needs to be highly precise and robust in nature, as the torque required would be high [2]. High torque servo motor along with a recirculating ball screw is selected as a result. The actuation unit is controlled by a microcontroller with inputs from the software. The foot rest was redesigned to house the brake and throttle systems. An additional set of batteries are included for powering various actuation systems. All the actuation systems must be calibrated according to the output of software for flawless working of the vehicle. The objective is to convert an available vehicle to an autonomous vehicle.