INTRODUCTION

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

A vehicle able to navigate the environment without any human assistance.

How it works

• Decisions on this system occur automatically without any human intervention

• It uses GPS, radar, laser light, computer vision, and odometry .
• The vehicle must know first where it is in the world, GPS is employed to calculate this.
• The vehicle then follows a specific temporal path (point A to point B)
• It uses Motion planning algorithms (evaluated in terms of completeness, an error mes-
sage is returned when the algorithm is incomplete)

odometry- is the use of data(measurement of distance using odometer)

from motion sensors to estimate change in position over time
COMPUTER VISION
LASER LIGHT
SYSTEMS FLOW

GPS then tells the car where it is in the

world and it calculates point B location and
distance

Two way communication

GPS transmitter and Radar unit

To be able to move Vehicle sends ad-

dress to GPS

Motion algorithm in the vehicle computer

calculates everything needed by the vehi-
cle to move smoothly from point A to point
B. This range from motion trajectory itself,
speed, obeying traffic lights and avoiding
obstacles
Advantages

• Absolute no human input all the way

• Motorists do other things on their way to and from work- some may get a head start checking work mail
and staff
• Electric use- saves energy and no carbon emissions.
• Responds faster than humans
• Always at attention, cars neither use phones nor get drunk
• Cooperative behaviour, the vehicles calculate together what is the safe speed to be travelling at at a spe-
cific moment and this limits traffic jams
Disadvantages

• GPS- not so accurate

• Path stabilization problems
• Hefty computer processing demands to the internet cloud
• Unable to distinguish a harmful and a non-harmful obstacle
• Slow response to an event
• Limited onboard computation
• seize functioning instantaneously without warming most of the time
• Wrong speed may cause the car to select wrong path
• The vehicles may get trapped
• Motion calculating algorithm- miscommunication among different car models
with different systems
Limited Optical path length- may be unable to see obstacles
right behind a curve

optical path

Steep edge/cliff

static /dynamic obstacle

• live or dead animal
• fallen tree
• rock
• car accident
Opportunities

• Combination of radar and LIDAR, Total autonomation - able to deal intelligently and autonomously
with problems and tasks
• Self organizing algorithms capable of making spontaneous formations of well organized structures
• Predicting behaviour of nearby drivers
• Clustering-The vehicles may be able to communicate and cooperate among themselves without
the use computers i the cloud. local communication- using clustering algorithms and sensors
• 5G mobile networks- able to make split second decisions

LIDAR(Light Detection and Ranging)

Used to create a picture of what is around the vehicle

Societal impact/Personal Opinion

• They have to be better that humans in order to be a standard form of moving people
from point to point
• Reaching an agreement with driving public about what they want from autonomous
vehicles- reducing accidents
• What to do when confronted with a life and death situation.
• the vehicles may be very expensive - only for the rich
• Promotes laziness
 SCENARIO TWO

SCENARIO ONE SCENARIO THREE

When confronted by a big animal, Jay walking kids A tree falls right before the car
this situation has the potential of equallying the same
killing both animal and human number of people on
the vehicle
 SCENARIO

SUSPENDED ROADWAYS

thin wire embed in the asphalt to

mimic the roadway and its curves
opposite lanes never intersect
one lane runs below or above the other
Sensor that sends a ping to the wire
Overpass bridge for pedestrian which is then redraws the wire path in
crossing the car computer for true stable path

CBD

Residential area
wider lanes on highways

A cluster - the vehicles communicate on local level were they create links of

communication.

Global paths that are traceable without the use of internet in the
cloud
CITATIONS
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/nation-and-world/the-long-road-to-autonomous-vehicles-20170405

Qu, Zhihua. Cooperative control of dynamical systems: applications to autonomous vehicles. Springer Science & Business Media,
2009.

Althoff, Matthias, Olaf Stursberg, and Martin Buss. “Safety assessment of autonomous cars using verification techniques.” Ameri-
can Control Conference, 2007. ACC’07. IEEE, 2007.