Pack up your high-tech sensors, artificial vision systems and solar-powered laser scanners, because it’s time for a road trip of the nerdiest order! A fleet of electric vans has just completed an arduous 8,000-mile journey across Europe and Asia — and the caravan accomplished the ordeal without human drivers or physical maps (although there were a few backseat scientists on board). Dispatched by the European Research Council, the autonomous vehicles relied on the Generic Obstacle and Lane Detector (GOLD) navigation system to successfully steer a course from Italy to the Shanghai Expo in China.
According to NPR, the GOLD system harvests data from four solar-powered laser scanners and seven video cameras — all of which are mounted on a single vehicle — in order to recognize obstacles and traffic patterns. The system interprets the data, manipulates the vehicle’s speed, and then guides it with a PC-controlled steering wheel. GOLD apparently provided an impressive demonstration of those capabilities during the Silk Road robo-trip, because human intervention was rarely required. NPR calls the amazing accomplishment “a modern-day version of Marco Polo’s journey around the world.” Sure — just replace camels, cholera and pirates with self-piloted transports, traffic jams and tollbooth operators.
Autonomous Vans Drive Themselves From Italy to China originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://www.switched.com/2010/10/28/autonomous-vans-drive-themselves-from-italy-to-china/
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