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Autonomous Vans Drive Themselves From Italy to China

by Warren Riddle on October 28, 2010 at 05:00 PM

driverless vans
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.

Tags: AutonomousCar, AutonomousVehicles, car, driving, EuropeanResearchCouncil, GenericObstacleAndLaneDetector, RoadTrip, ShanghaiExpo2010, Top

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