Driverless Vehicles Make Inroads in Military - Velodyne Lidar

STATE OF THE ART
OXFORD, U.K.
University of Oxford
is working on a driverless
Nissan Leaf that wouldn’t use
GPS or 3-D sensors to function.
The car uses an Oxford-created
computer system to drive and
has an iPad interface
for the driver.
After
a series of road
train tests, the Safe Road
Trains for the Environment test
by Ricardo UK on Volvo vehicles
was declared a success. The program
demonstrated a road-training
concept, where cars follow a
leader vehicle, and it displayed
how the method cuts down
on emissions.
HÄLLERED, SWEDEN
Researchers from the
University of Parma took
part in a 2010 project to drive
autonomously from Italy to China.
Speaking at a recent conference,
Dr. Alberto Broggi said the vehicle
sensed using lidar but had no
integrated maps.
PARMA, ITALY
Mining company Rio
Tinto is using autonomous
vehicles to work iron ore mines
as part of the company’s Mine
of the Future concept.
The company also uses
autonomous trains.
PILBARA, AUSTRALIA
ECUBLENS, SWITZERLAND
Ecole Polytechnique
of Lausanne is testing
autonomous shuttles that will be
used on campus to transport up to
eight people at a time. The vehicles,
which are made by French
company Induct, can travel up
to 20 kpm.
MISSION CRITICAL • May 2013 7