FAQ¶

Integrating ad-rss-lib into a system¶

This section tries to give answers to the questions that came up while people were integrating ad-rss-lib into their systems.

Integration examples¶

The ad-rss-lib is already integrated in other open source projects:

• Apollo Open Platform: In Apollo Open Automated Driving stack RSS is integrated directly into the planning module to provide additional information to be deployed while planning.
• CARLA Driving Simulator: In CARLA Open-source simulator for autonomous driving research RSS is integrated as Checker in form of a virtual RssSensor and as a simple (optional) Doer in form of a RssRestrictor.

Classes: RssCheck, RssSituationChecking and RssResponseResolving¶

How can I perform the checks?¶

The ad-rss-lib provides more or less two ways of integrating the functionality into a system.

1. The ad::rss::core::RssCheck class performs all required steps one after another. Create a permanent object instance of this class and call calculateAccelerationRestriction() for every step in time continuously. You have to provide the world model data as input and get the acceleration restrictions to be applied as output.

2. If you are interested in the intermediate results you can to call the overloaded version of calculateAccelerationRestriction() or call the processing chain step by step. For this, you have to create permanent object instances of RssSituationExtraction, RssSituationChecking and RssResponseResolving classes and call the following processing chain for every step in time continuously:

   • ad::rss::core::RssSituationExtraction::extractSituations(worldModel, situationVector)
   • ad::rss::core::SituationChecking::checkSituations(situationVector, responseStateVector)
   • ad::rss::core::ResponseResolving::provideProperResponse(responseStateVector, properResponse, accelerationRestriction)

Regardless which solution you prefer, you always have to respect the return value of the functions, before you further make use of the information!

Why are the functions realized within classes?¶

The observed situations are analyzed by RSS over time. Therefore, the processing steps have to store the state of previous time steps. As a consequence, the object instances of the classes have to exist over time and must not be deleted!

Input: world model data¶

The worldModel is the input to the RSS calculations. It is derived from the Sense Subsystem.

How do I get to the information required for the input worldModel?¶

The world model data heavily depends on the system the ad-rss-lib is going to be integrated. Therefore, there is no single answer to this question. Simple scenarios can be derived using basic object data, integration of RSS to the full extend demand more sophisticated a-priori information, usually provided by means of an AD-Map. The unit tests provided with the ad-rss-lib build some basic worldModel structures that might be taken as a starting point. Better examples can be found in the section on Integration examples.

Output: rssAccelerationRestrictions¶

The rssAccelerationRestrictions is the output of the RSS calculations. It is given as input of the Act Subsystem.

If a RSS restricted acceleration is applied on the actuators, does it mean that RSS is not only a checker?¶

Yes, indeed. At one hand side RSS performs an analysis of the situation over time which detects if a situation is becoming dangerous. In addition, RSS derives also a proper response for the ego-vehicle on how to get out of such. If finally the resulting acceleration restrictions in longitudinal, lateral left and right directions are considered by the actuation system, the situation will become safe again.

Is there any impact on the Plan Subsystem? Should it be adapted since it undergoes RSS acceleration restrictions?¶

There are many possibilities on how the information on the RSS situation analysis can be deployed within a system. It can be used as a plain safety checking and enforcing entity being totally independent from the Plan Subsystem. Then, the Plan Subsystem will only indirectly be influenced in a way, that the vehicle is not following the planing output. But for sure the planning algorithms might directly benefit when feeding back the information from RSS. Even beyond, if the planning algorithms evaluate different driving strategies, RSS can be applied directly within the planning algorithm to influence the rating. This includes also learning algorithms of AI-based planning approaches.