Prof. Dr. Eng. George Dimitrakopoulos, asst. prof. at the department of Informatics and Telematics of the School of Digital Technology, Harokopio University of Athens (Greece), received the Best Paper Award at the 26th Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress, which took place October 21-25, in Singapore. The Congress is the world’s leading transport technology congress, with about 14000 participants, more than 300 exhibitors and more than 20 technical tours and demonstrators.

The winning paper, "On-board intelligent management functionality for improving the driving of highly automated vehicles”, was co-authored by Elias Panagiotopoulos and George Dimitrakopoulos from Harokopio University of Athens, Greece

Abstract:

Highly automated vehicles can fundamentally change road transport and improve life quality. Autonomous driving capabilities, provided by highly automated vehicles are enabled, facilitated and supported by the latest advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), forming the cornerstone of the new generation of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs). The goal of this paper is to introduce a novel on-board intelligent management functionality that automatically and dynamically proposes the optimum autonomous level to the driver when he/she wants to make a certain journey with his/her automated vehicle. The proposed system utilizes (i) driver’s personal preferences, (ii) information based on sensor data fusion systems, and (iii) previous knowledge and experience on driving automation capabilities and service parameters. Knowledge is obtained through the exploitation of Bayesian networking principles and specifically the Naïve-Bayes model. Indicative simulation results showcase the effectiveness of the proposed functionality, mostly with regards to proactively identifying the optimum level of autonomy, and accordingly, notifying the driver.