Extending Teleoperated Driving: Advanced Design for versatile Environments and Communications

While huge progress has been made in the field of automated driving in recent years, it becomes more and more clear that certain Operational Design Domains are still a steep challenge for automated vehicles. Hence, teleoperated driving systems are emerging as a solution for situations in which an automated vehicle cannot continue. Most of the systems are based on cameras only and use cellular communication for data transmission. While this is helpful in many scenarios, cameras have limitations, e.g., with fog or at night. In addition, relying on cellular networks can create a point of failure, even with multiple operators. This paper presents an advanced teleoperated driving system that aims to address these issues. The teleoperation system uses LIDAR combined with cameras and allows communication over 5G networks as well as over ITS-G5. The camera view gives a good impression of the scenario, whereas the LIDAR increases the perception of the operator with freespace and object information. Cellular networks can be used when available, and ITS-G5 can be specifically deployed in areas where no cellular signal can be received, for example, underground parkings or stretches of rural highways. The evaluation shows that both communication channels are reliable and fast enough for teleoperation and that different sensor information can be transmitted.