The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Without driver or map, vans go from Italy to China
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/without-driver-or-map-vans-go-from-italy-to-china-20101029-176ja.html
October 29, 2010
Driverless "green energy" vans have ended their long test drive at the
Shanghai Expo after a 13,000km drive.
Across Eastern Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Gobi Desert — it
certainly was a long way to go without getting lost.
Four driverless electric vans successfully ended a 13,000-kilometre
test drive from Italy to China — a modern-day version of Marco Polo's
journey around the world — with their arrival at the Shanghai Expo
this week.
The vehicles, equipped with four solar-powered laser scanners and
seven video cameras that work together to detect and avoid obstacles,
are part of an experiment aimed at improving road safety and advancing
automotive technology.
The sensors on the vehicles enabled them to navigate through wide
extremes in road, traffic and weather conditions, while collecting
data to be analysed for further research, in a study sponsored by the
European Research Council.
"We didn't know the route, I mean what the roads would have been and
if we would have found nice roads, traffic, lots of traffic, medium
traffic, crazy drivers or regular drivers, so we encountered the lot,"
said Isabella Fredriga, a research engineer for the project.
Though the vans were driverless and mapless, they did carry
researchers as passengers just in case of emergencies. The
experimenters did have to intervene a few times — when the vehicles
got snarled in a Moscow traffic jam and to handle toll stations.
The project used no maps, often traveling through remote regions of
Siberia and China. At one point, a van stopped to give a hitchhiker a
lift.
A computerised artificial vision system dubbed GOLD, for Generic
Obstacle and Lane Detector, analysed the information from the sensors
and automatically adjusted the vehicles' speed and direction.
"This steering wheel is controlled by the PC. So the PC sends a
command and the steering wheel moves and turns and we can follow the
road, follow the curves and avoid obstacles with this," said Alberto
Broggi of Vislab at the University of Parma in Italy, the lead
researcher for the project.
"The idea here was to travel on a long route, on two different
continents, in different states, different weather, different traffic
conditions, different infrastructure. Then we can have some huge
number of situations to test the system on," he said.
The technology will be used to study ways to complement drivers'
abilities. It also could have applications in farming, mining and
construction, the researchers said.
The vehicles ran at maximum speeds of 60 kilometres per hour and had
to be recharged for eight hours after every two to three hours of
driving. At times, it was monotonous and occasionally nerve-racking,
inevitably due to human error, Fredriga said.
"There were a few scary moments. Like when the following vehicle
bumped into the leading one and that was just because we forgot, we
stopped and we forgot to turn the system off," Fredriga said.
------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tell your friends who love scientific news that they can
subscribe to this list !!
They can do it by sending a blank email to:
rael-science-select-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
It's free !
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
rael-science-select-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To change your e-mail address, unsubscribe from the old address and subscribe from the new address (see above).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rael-science-select/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rael-science-select/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
rael-science-select-digest@yahoogroups.com
rael-science-select-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rael-science-select-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
0 comments:
Post a Comment