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Showing posts from August, 2017

The Autonomous Car: A Diverse Array of Sensors Drives Navigation, Driving, and Performance

The self-driving, autonomous vehicle has been getting lots of attention, due to significant development efforts and dramatic progress made by companies such as Google. While general use of autonomous vehicles for widespread use on public roads is likely years away, these vehicles are already being employed in "constrained" applications such as open-pit mines and farming.  Google has been doing extensive road tests of autonomous vehicles, both as a) custom vehicles and b) modified standard cars. Among the many technologies which make autonomous vehicles possible is a combination of sensors and actuators, sophisticated algorithms, and powerful processors to execute software. The sensors and actuators in an autonomous vehicle fall into three broad categories: 1) navigation and guidance (where you are, where you want to be, how to get there); 2) driving and safety (directing the vehicle, making sure it vehicle acts properly under all circumstances, and follows the r