leads 0.8.0

Lightweight Embedded Assisted Driving System

LEADS: Lightweight Embedded Assisted Driving System

LEADS is a lightweight embedded assisted driving system. It is designed to simplify the development of the instrumentation system for electric vehicles. It is written in well-organized Python and C/C++ with impressive performance. It is not only plug-and-play (the VeC Project) but also fully customizable. It provides multiple abstract layers that allow users to pull out the components and rearrange them into a new project. You can either configure the existing executable module leads_vec and leads_vec_rc simply through a JSON file or write your own codes based on the framework as easily as building a LEGO.

The hardware components chosen for this project are geared towards amateur developers. It uses neither a CAN bus nor any dedicated circuit board, but generic development kits such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino instead. However, as it is a high-level system running on a host computer, the software framework has the ability to adapt to any type of hardware component if you are willing to write some codes.

Before you start, please note that LEADS only supports rear drive and two drive-wheel configurations: single rear wheel (SRW) mode and dual rear wheel (DRW) mode.

:link: Docs

:link: Remote Analyst Online Dashboard

Key Features

• A basic instrumentation system
• A basic communication system
• A basic control system
• A data recording system with the following components
  • A speed recording system
  • A G force recording system
  • A GPS recording system
  • A battery voltage recording system
• A control system with the following components
  • DTCS (Dynamic Traction Control System)
  • ABS (Anti-lock Braking System)
  • EBI (Emergency Braking Intervention)
  • ATBS (Automatic Trail Braking System)

To High School Students

The codes are never designed for average high school students to understand. You may find it hard to read the codes if you do not satisfy the following requirements of skills and knowledge.

• Advanced Python knowledge (you should be familiar with everything and even programming philosophy in Python)
• Solid knowledge of Physics (you should understand how a car moves in reality)
• Basic embedded development experience (C/C++, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, serial communication, PWM)
• Rich experience in Web development (React, Next.js, FastAPI, TCP/IP, sockets)
• Basic machine learning knowledge (linear regression, polynomial regression)

Installation

Python

Note that LEADS requires Python >= 3.12.

pip install Pillow customtkinter keyboard pyserial leads

numpy will be automatically installed with leads.

Pillow, customtkinter, keyboard, and pyserial are optional.

If you only want the framework, run the following.

pip install leads

Verify

python -m leads_vec info

Arduino

You can install LEADS-Arduino from Arduino Library Manager. Note that it is named "LEADS", not "LEADS-Arduino", in the index.

LEADS Framework

See Read the Docs (TBC) for the documentation of how to customize and make use of the framework in your project.

Quick Start

Main

python -m leads_vec run

Optional Arguments

Run the following to get a list of all the supported arguments.

python -m leads_vec -h

Specify a Configuration File

python -m leads_vec -c path/to/the/config/file.json run

If not specified, all configurations will be default values.

To learn about the configuration file, read Configurations.

Generate a Configuration File

python -m leads_vec -r config run

This will generate a default "config.json" file under the current directory.

Register as a Systemd Service

python -m leads_vec -r systemd run

This will register a system service to start the program.

To enable auto-start at boot, run the following.

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable leads_vec

Remote Analyst

python -m leads_vec_rc

Go to the online dashboard at https://leads-vec-rc.projectneura.org.

Optional Arguments

Run the following to get a list of all the supported arguments.

python -m leads_vec_rc -h

Server Port

python -m leads_vec_rc -p 80

If not specified, the port is 8000 by default.

Specify a Configuration File

python -m leads_vec_rc -c path/to/the/config/file.json

If not specified, all configurations will be default values.

To learn about the configuration file, read Configurations.

Environment Setup

This section helps you set up the exact environment we have for the VeC project. A more detailed guide of reproduction is available on https://leads.projectneura.org, but first of all, we run an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 8GB. After the OS is set up, clone the repository or download the scripts from releases (only stable releases provide scripts).

You can simply run "setup.sh" and it will install everything for you. If anything goes wrong, you can also manually install everything.

If you install Python using the scripts, you will not find python ..., python3 ..., pip ..., or pip3 ... working because you have to specify the Python version such that python3.12 ... and python3.12 -m pip ....

Configurations

The configuration is a JSON file that has the following columns. You can have an empty configuration file like the following as all the columns are optional.

{}

Note that a purely empty file could cause an error.

	Type	Usage	Used By	Default
debug_level	str	"DEBUG", "INFO", "WARN", "ERROR"	Main, Remote	"DEBUG"
srw_mode	bool	True: single rear wheel; False: dual rear wheel	Main, Remote	True
width	int	Window width	Main	720
height	int	Window height	Main	480
fullscreen	bool	True: auto maximize; False: window mode	Main	False
no_title_bar	bool	True: no title bar; False: default title bar	Main	False
manual_mode	bool	True: hide control system; False: show control system	Main	False
refresh_rate	int	GUI frame per second	Main	30
font_size_small	int	Small font size	Main	8
font_size_medium	int	Medium font size	Main	16
font_size_large	int	Large font size	Main	32
font_size_x_large	int	Extra large font size	Main	48
comm_addr	str	Communication server address	Remote	"127.0.0.1"
comm_port	int	The port on which the communication system runs on	Main, Remote	16900
data_dir	str	The directory for the data recording system	Remote	"./data"
enable_data_persistence	bool	True: enable data persistence; False: disable data persistence	Remote	True

Submodules

• LEADS-Arduino
• leads-docs
• leads-vec-rc (Private)

Periodic Report

See reports.

Architecture

Main

Pin Configuration

Remote Controller

Collaborations

Community

Issues

Our team management completely relies on GitHub. Tasks are published and assigned as issues. You will be notified if you are assigned to certain tasks. However, you may also join other discussions for which you are not responsible.

There are a few labels that classify the issues.

• bug reports a bug
• code review discusses a code review or comment
• documentation suggests a documentation enhancement
• duplicate marks that a similar issue has been raised
• enhancement proposes a new feature or request
• help wanted means that extra attention is needed to this issue
• invalid marks that the issue is in a valid format
• question requests further information
• report states that it is discussed in the meeting
• todo creates a new task
• wontfix marks that the issue is ignored

Label your issue with at least one of the labels above before you submit.

Projects

You can have a look at the whole schedule of each project in a timeline using the projects feature.

Code Contributions

See CONTRIBUTING.md.