Are “Hard Sciences” Enough for Teaching Applied Control Design? Driving Assistance and Autonomy in Vehicles as a Case Study

摘要

This note aims to discuss the increasing importance of introducing to students in applied control, domains other those directly needed for controlling the underlined studied systems. Indeed, the numeric revolution the last decades had as consequence an increasingly possible closer interaction between controlled systems and humans. This increasing “proximity” between system(s) and human(s) generate the need to better consider the interactions between both and the possible (nice or disastrous) consequences resulting from this close interaction, and how to adjust then, if possible, the parameters, in order to maximize the positive interactions effects. This paper highlights some key issues involved in the advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles design, used as a case study for giving the reader some elements to the question stated in the title. Note that the goal of this paper is not to address control design for ADAS or autonomous vehicles from an educational point of view. It is aimed here instead, to discuss what else more than “hard sciences” (control, computer sciences, artificial intelligence, etc.) would a control engineer need to be aware of in order to be able to push advances in his field, in coherence with humans needs, and to also be aware of ethical issues related to his/her work. This knowledge could also help him have a good communication with experts in other domains.