Driverless Wildcat at Oxford

Wow, every time I look I find a new group working on driverless cars.

BAe Systems has donated their Wildcat driverless vehicle to the Oxford University Mobile Robotics Group with the intent that the Oxford group will further develop and refine the system.

The Wildcat has been in research and development for over 5 years at BAe. It is an off-road, 4×4 production car from Bowler that has been modified to run driverless. A central computer guided by wireless data, GPS, and laser range sensors, can steer, brake, and control the car’s speed while avoiding obstacles.

The Wildcat is currently being developed and tested on private, controlled roads. It’s not quite ready for public roads, but it may not take too long.

Here are a couple of brief videos to give you a quick overview of the robotics center, the Wildcat, and how it works.

Some interesting Wildcat facts:

• The Wildcat has driven thousands of autonomous miles.
• The Wildcat’s sensors can observe a volume larger than 120,000 squash courts in one second.
• The patented safety system allows the operator to safely monitor, operate and drive the wildcat from the driver’s seat, a chase vehicle or a remote ground station.
• The Wildcat’s software has been demonstrated on over seven different types of vehicle.
• The Wildcat senses and records 1GB of data per second.
• The Wildcat’s software reduces the volume of sensor data by over one million before outputting to the steering, throttle and breaks.
• The Wildcat has a flexible sensor and processing system including multiple on-board gigabit Ethernet, Firewire and fibre networks.

You can find out more details at either the Oxford Mobile Robotics site or BAe Systems Wildcat page.

GM EN-V Driverless Intersection

Would this actually be desirable?

I don’t know.

Will it ever be possible?

Probably – computers and technology are advancing at an astonishing pace and ‘ever’ is a very long time.

GM just announced their work on their next generation EN-Vs. The EN-Vs feature a driverless mode. GM also released a fascinating concept video of a possible future that appears to consist of only driverless vehicles.

One of the more radical ideas can be found at the 2:10 mark in the video.

If you can’t see the video above, you can find it here.

I love the idea of driverless cars and I firmly believe that someday most of us will be riding in them.

However, I find the intersection illustrated in the video to be unnerving. It appears uncontrolled and chaotic, but only because it’s new and different. Take someone from 100 years ago, at the dawn of the automobile age, and show them our modern highways, on/off ramps, and intersections, and they would probably be as overwhelmed as today’s drivers would be looking at driverless, traffic-lightless intersections.

Over time, as people use and understand driverless technology, and as it proves itself in less extreme situations, such intersections may be commonplace in a totally driverless future.

Self-steering Tractor

A prototype driverless tractor was unveiled at the 30th Annual International Agriculture and Horticulture Days of Mechanisation, on the 24th and 25th September in Oudenaarde, Belgium.

Developed by Flanders’ Mechatronics Technology Centre (FMTC), together with the Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS) division of K.U.Leuven’s Biosystems Department, the tractor, using GPS and various positional sensors, adapts itself to terrain conditions and adjusts its speed and turning radius automatically.

Eric Schmidt at Google Zeitgeist 2011

During a question and answer session at Google’s Zeitgeist 2011, Google’s Eric Schmidt made the comment: “Our computers drive our cars better than you do when you’re drunk. That’s our starting point.”

Meant to be somewhat humorous, but Mr. Schmidt is serious. Driverless cars are already better than an impaired driver. Soon they will be better than the average driver. And eventually they will be better than all human drivers.

You can watch the Q & A below:

If you don’t see the video above, you can find it here.

In the full story, reported on Jalopnik.com, Google claims that at the time of the crash the vehicle was being driven by a human. The Google Prius apparently rear-ended another Prius, and according to a witness caused a cascade involving two or three other cars.

This accident brings up many interesting questions about how accidents can and will be handled in the future.

• How can police report on the accident?
• How to do they or insurance companies know who or what was driving?
• Who is responsible for damages?

These are all questions I’ll be pursing in future articles.

MadeInGermany on Berlin Streets

The driverless car “MadeInGermany”, from Autonomos Labs at the Free University of Berlin, traveled 50 miles (80 Km) through Berlin traffic just over a week ago. The vehicle completed a 12 mile (20 Km) route between the International Congress Center and Brandenburg Gate four times without any incidents.

“MadeInGermany” is the first autonomous car licensed for automatic driving in the streets and highways of the German states Berlin and Brandenburg. Currently the car requires a human behind the wheel as a safety precaution. However, over time, it is expected that a human driver will not be necessary.

The car is a standard VW Passat that has been enhanced with GPS, cameras, laser sensors, computers, and controllers which can sense the car’s location and its environment and control the car’s speed, steering, and braking.

The car’s position is determined using GPS and a map of the city. Laser scanners are used to detect and avoid objects around the car. Video cameras are used to detect and stay within lane strips as well as to see and react to traffic lights – during the Berlin test drive, 46 traffic lights were successfully detected and navigated during each of the four loops.

The next goal set for MadeInGermany is fully automatic travel between European cities.

Here’s a quick video of MadeInGermany on the road:

If you don’t see the video above, you can find it here.

]]> http://driverlessworld.com/2011/10/madeingermany-driverless-car-test-on-berlin-streets/feed/ 1 http://driverlessworld.com/2011/10/driverless-on-the-farm/ http://driverlessworld.com/2011/10/driverless-on-the-farm/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:00:59 +0000 Bradley Keyes http://driverlessworld.com/?p=356 Continue reading →]]>

Kinze Driverless Tractor

Acres and acres of wheat, corn, soybeans, and other crops. A known environment, little traffic. Driverless tractors, combines, harvesters, and other farm equipment are inevitable.

Farmers are already using GPS for guidance, tracking, and record keeping. Just add a few more sensors, some computers, software, and a little more time and a single farmer will be in command of a fleet of tractors.

Kinze Autonomous Project

Kinze Manufacturing recently unveiled their autonomous tractors for use in row crop production. Their driverless tractors will be used on a variety of tasks, including planting, fertilizing, and harvesting crops.

The system so far has only been run as a demonstration but Kinze is working on commercialization. The video below shows the potential of these systems, even if human drivers are currently used for some of the tasks.

If you can’t see the video above, you can find it here.

If you can’t see the video above, you can find it here.

The Autonomos Labs Team

The Autonomos Labs team has or is currently working on the following projects, all of which should ultimately lead to fully driverless vehicles:

• BrainDriver – hands-free driving using a commercial EEG device
• Autonomous Taxi – an iPad app used to call a driverless taxi
• MadeInGermany – their latest autonomous car which in Sept 2011 successfully traveled 50 miles (80 km) through the streets of Berlin.
• iDriver – remote control of a vehicle from a handheld touchscreen interface (iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.)
• Spirit of Berlin – the driverless car that was entered into the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge
• eyeDriver – software that allows a ‘driver’ to control a car with simple eye movements

Fortunately the car only wanted to go in circles. It was eventually turned off when a courageous firefighter was able to jump inside the moving car. No one was seriously hurt.

If you don’t see the video above, you can find it here.

The main report can be found at the Cape May County Herald.

Dubai Metro Train

The Dubai Metro Green Line opens today, September 9, 2011. The Green Line is 14 miles (23 km) long. When combined with the Dubai Red Line which opened 2 years ago, the system consists of 46 miles (75 km) of fully automated, driverless track.

The maximum running speed of trains is 55 mph (90km/h).

The combined lines are expected to transport more than 40 million passengers a year.

Image curtesy of Wikipedia.