AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
How do they work?
Autonomous vehicles are vehicles designed to require little to no human interaction. Their use of lasers, radar, sonar, cameras and 3D road maps are called 'prior maps'. Various self- driving technologies have already been developed by companies such as Nissan as well as other manufacturers. While designs may show inconsistency, most automated systems fashion and conserve an internal map of their surroundings. Based on an extensive collection of sensors, like radar. Software processes those inputs, plots a path and sends commands to the vehicle’s “actuators”, which control acceleration, braking, and steering.
We have already experienced the effects of automated vehicles; from cruise control, self-parking cars, cameras assisting drivers to see if their car is close to anyone when parking. Cruise control by the early 1990s saw Teetor’s analog method of speed management being traded with a digital approach.
LiDAR, radar, sonar and camera-based solutions – best known as ‘predict cruise control’, allow cars to sense others to determine speed, detect and avoid collisions, as well as predict the behaviour of other vehicles among other aptitudes.
Parking sensors were just the beginning of self-assisted parking. The sensors were originally made as guidance devices for the blind. It was only until the early 2000s when the technology was used for motor vehicles.
Reverse and 360° cameras were first installed in 1956, but the technology didn’t trickle down to mainstream cars until 2000, when Nissan introduced its luxury infinity Q45. The first form of park assist struggled to detect objects that weren’t cars or weren’t large enough or too far for the sensors to recognize. i.e. dogs, pedestrians and baby prams were hard to detect.
Most systems are capable of parallel parking and steering into bay parking spaces, however, fully automated parking systems are becoming more common. BMW’s i3 (released in 2015) is one of the few cars that can park itself fully autonomously and includes the switching of gears.
It’s not uncommon to find an individual who won’t admit to missing a few road signs or two whilst driving. The system consists of a front-facing camera, which scans the roads ahead for traffic signs. The camera is connected to a character recognition
software which lists any changes described by the signs, and
relays it onto the car’s instrument panel.
Let’s consider cars with active safety system. Manufacturers are building cars with systems that help drivers avoid or lessen the chances of a crash in various situations, such as, changing lanes into unseen cars in a blind spot, or simply backing out in a busy parking lot.
The driverless technology industry grows at 16 percent a year. With this in mind, the theory is that these autonomous cars are safer than human drivers because accidents are caused by humans ignoring signs or simply, not driving how they are meant to.
Autonomous vehicles simply follow what their systems have taught them to do.
4 | MANE ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING | DECEMBER 2018