PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING TECHNOLOGIES FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE NAVIGATION
Authors: Mochurad L. I. , Mamchur M. V. 
Published: February 2024

Context. Autonomous vehicles are becoming increasingly popular, and one of the important modern challenges in their development is ensuring their effective navigation in space and movement within designated lanes. This paper examines a method of spatial orientation for vehicles using computer vision and artificial neural networks. The research focused on the navigation system of an autonomous vehicle, which incorporates the use of modern distributed and parallel computing technologies.

Objective. The aim of this work is to enhance modern autonomous vehicle navigation algorithms through parallel training of artificial neural networks and to determine the optimal combination of technologies and nodes of devices to increase speed and enable real-time decision-making capabilities in spatial navigation for autonomous vehicles.

Method. The research establishes that the utilization of computer vision and neural networks for road lane segmentation proves to be an effective method for spatial orientation of autonomous vehicles. For multi-core computing systems, the application of parallel programming technology, OpenMP, for neural network training on processors with varying numbers of parallel threads increases the algorithm’s execution speed. However, the use of CUDA technology for neural network training on a graphics processing unit significantly enhances prediction speeds compared to OpenMP. Additionally, the feasibility of employing PyTorch Distributed Data Parallel (DDP) technology for training the neural network across multiple graphics processing units (nodes) simultaneously was explored. This approach further improved prediction execution times compared to using a single graphics processing unit.

Results. An algorithm for training and prediction of an artificial neural network was developed using two independent nodes, each equipped with separate graphics processing units, and their synchronization for exchanging training results after each epoch, employing PyTorch Distributed Data Parallel (DDP) technology. This approach allows for scalable computations across a higher number of resources, significantly expediting the model training process.

Conclusions. The conducted experiments have affirmed the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, warranting the recommendation of this research for further advancement in autonomous vehicles and enhancement of their navigational capabilities. Notably, the research outcomes can find applications in various domains, encompassing automotive manufacturing, logistics, and urban transportation infrastructure. The obtained results are expected to assist future researchers in understanding the most efficient hardware and software resources to employ for implementing AI-based navigation systems in autonomous vehicles. Prospects for future investigations may encompass refining the accuracy of the proposed parallel algorithm without compromising its efficiency metrics. Furthermore, there is potential for experimental exploration of the proposed algorithm in more intricate practical scenarios of diverse nature and dimensions.