A design pattern for autonomous vehicle software control architectures

Design patterns represent a generalized approach to solving a related set of problems. Typically, a design pattern does not provide reusable code. Instead it provides a common vocabulary and a generalized approach in an application-independent manner. We have developed a design pattern for use in controlling autonomous vehicles. The control of individual components within an autonomous vehicle will obviously differ from one vehicle to another. However all of the components and subsystems must work together as a whole. This overall control is carried out by a software control architecture, and includes concepts from artificial intelligence, computer vision, vehicle navigation, and graph theory. The strategic-tactical-execution software control architecture (STESCA) was developed to serve as a design pattern for autonomous vehicle control systems. The STESCA approach is currently being used to control both an autonomous underwater vehicle and a land-based wheeled autonomous vehicle in simulation.