RSS

Driverless Electric Drone Vans to make 8,000 Mile Trip from Italy to China

28 Jul

Vislab, a University of Parma systems lab researching artificial vision and intelligence, recently announced a proposed road trip test for two robotic alternative-fueled vans they have designed. The vans were originally scheduled to leave Parma, Italy on July 20, 2010 and arrive in Shanghai, China around the end of October, 2010. However, due to unexpected scheduling delays, the vans will now officially start the trip from Belgrade on July 29, 2010. Alberto Broggi, Vislab’s director, and Massimo Bertozzi, the project manager, are leading this expedition. About thirty other people are also involved in the project.

Vislab’s project is being funded by a $2.3 million grant from the European Commission’s European Research Council. Vislab’s technical sponsors, which include Plaggio, have provided some of the equipment, such as the Plaggio Porter vans. To avoid legal problems, Vislab has obtained special permission to conduct the experiment from every country along the route prior to the trip. They have also arranged to conduct several demonstrations of the vehicles and its new technology along the way. Vislab has also arranged for live video feeds of the trip to be viewed by anyone interested in the project. You simply log onto their website to view the progress.

The 8,000-mile (13,000 kilometers) road test will be the longest known journey made by driverless vehicles, as well as by electric vehicles. Vislab is hoping to gather or fine-tune approximately 100 terabytes of information regarding the issues of integrating drone vehicles into normal, everyday traffic. They are also testing the technology for possible use in war zones, on farm equipment, and mining equipment, especially for those used in remote, hard to access areas.

Nonetheless, Mr. Broggi is not expecting commercialized drone vehicles to be widely utilized for at least another 10 years. If you are hoping to let your car do the driving for you while you just sit back and relax, you may have to wait another 20 years. However, if you’re a farmer who wants a tractor to plow and seed a field at night, you may not have to wait much longer. Vislab is in the process of testing scanners that will allow tractors to be programmed to work throughout the night.

Vislab and Caterpillar, Inc. are currently working together to develop drone vehicle technology to work in extreme environments for purposes such as mining. Some automated drone technology is already available on the market and is currently being used in various applications such as unmanned flights in war zones, space exploration, and marine exploration.

The proposed road test, which is expected to reveal flaws in the technology, is being used to test how well the vehicles can adapt to extreme temperatures, congested traffic, diverse terrains, and various road conditions. Although the vans will be used to test driverless technology, they will not be completely left to their own intelligence and control. There will actually be four vans, with each of the two drone vans being paired up with one of the two lead vans.

The manned lead vans will be sending data to the drone vans, but it will be up to the drone vans to actually interpret and respond to the information being fed in from the surrounding environment. The vehicles have been equipped with four laser scanners and seven video cameras that work as an integrated system to detect and avoid obstacles.

Two technicians will be riding in each one of the two test vans. In order to reduce liability, one technician will be in the front seat, in case there is an emergency reason to manually take control of the vehicle. The other technician will be riding in the back seat to monitor the systems’ performances.

Actually, both test drones will not be utilized simultaneously throughout the entire 8,000 miles road test. The two test vehicles are expected to be used for about four hours each day, taking turns at being experimented with. The two vehicles are set up to test different sets of circumstances. One pair of vehicles will ride on a truck while the other pair of vehicles is in use.

Since all four vans are electrically powered, they will only travel approximately 30-37 miles per hour. All four vehicles will need to be recharged for a full eight hours after every two to three hours of driving. To ensure there will be a way to recharge the vehicles in the areas where electricity may not be readily available, the convoy will be carrying gasoline-powered generators.

Some analysts think the driverless technology is feasible, but not exceptionally useful in the near future. They figure humans have already resolved some of the issues the technology is designed to resolve. Goods are already being transported in some remote areas simply by connecting three or four trailers to one large truck. The only requirement is a truck, one driver, and a few pieces of steel.

References:

Gasgoo Automotive News
Physorg
Popular Science (PopSci)
VisLab
The Washington Post