Skip to main content

Unmanned vehicles ‘to transform transportation within a few years’

According to new analysis from Frost and Sullivan, advances in sensor fusion technologies with high imaging capabilities to enhance manoeuvrability are quickening the development of unmanned vehicles. The resulting increase in the use of unmanned vehicles will eventually alter the dynamics of the transportation industry. The report, Innovations in Unmanned Vehicles–Land, Air, and Sea, finds that high-quality image and navigation sensors such as light detection and ranging systems, radar, and advanced global
March 10, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
RSSAccording to new analysis from Frost and Sullivan, advances in sensor fusion technologies with high imaging capabilities to enhance manoeuvrability are quickening the development of unmanned vehicles. The resulting increase in the use of unmanned vehicles will eventually alter the dynamics of the transportation industry.

The report, Innovations in Unmanned Vehicles–Land, Air, and Sea, finds that high-quality image and navigation sensors such as light detection and ranging systems, radar, and advanced global positioning systems are promising technologies that will play a key role in enabling unmanned vehicles. The integration of sensors, signal processing, and computer vision software in a form factor that is suitable for safe and precise usage will boost the capabilities of unmanned systems.

"Though various driver assistance systems are available today, improved obstacle and navigation technologies that can interpret unexpected behaviour – such as cyclists moving in traffic – will be essential for the deployment of autonomous vehicles," said Technical Insights research analyst Jabez Mendelson. "Apart from sensors, advances in lightweight materials suitable for harsh environmental conditions are also required."

Currently, unmanned systems are employed predominantly for military and research purposes. It is challenging for unmanned systems to find uses in commercial applications without clearing the standardisation norms and stringent tests laid down by various regulatory bodies. The constant evolution of platform technologies needed in unmanned vehicles adds to the challenge.

Effective platform integration, greater scalability, and enhanced sensor accuracy will be vital for the use of autonomous land vehicles, drones and marine vessels for commercial purposes.

"Developing high-quality sensors is critical to garner approval from regulatory and industrial bodies," stated Jabez Mendelson. "Integration with next-generation signal processing systems will also extend application scope to include surveillance, cargo carriers, and driver assistance systems and pave the way for the mass production of unmanned vehicles."

Related Content

  • Machine vision’s image of road management’s future
    June 11, 2015
    Q-Free’s Marco Sinnema looks at how the commoditisation of high-quality vision-based solutions is widening their application. Machine vision technology’s entry into the ITS/traffic management sector has followed a classic top-down path. This is unsurprising given the extremely demanding performance criteria which are the standard in its market of origin, manufacturing processing. Very high image qualities combined with frame rates often in the hundreds per second range resulted in vision systems with capabi
  • Commercial telematics shipments set for solid growth
    April 18, 2012
    At a CAGR of 27 per cent, commercial telematics systems shipments are set for solid growth. However, the fleet management industry continues to be haunted by structural problems: extreme levels of fragmentation with too many ‘me too’ and ‘dots-on-a-map’ providers and proprietary solutions littering the landscape.
  • On-road and in-vehicle are not in competition
    May 18, 2018
    The integrity and accuracy of data that can be verified by weigh-in-motion technology has been improving for decades – and the range of WIM applications is increasing at a tremendous pace. Chris Koniditsiotis, president of the International Society for Weigh-in-Motion (ISWIM) and CEO of Transport Certification Australia (TCA), began his career in 1985 as a pavements engineer. “When I joined this portfolio, the integrity, accuracy, and sampling frequency of mass information delivered at best an estimate, us
  • In-vehicle intersection violation Warning system
    January 31, 2012
    Mike Schagrin, ITS Joint Program Office, RITA, and John Harding, NHTSA, describe US progress towards an in-vehicle Intersection Violation Warning system. In 2008, there were 37,261 fatalities on US roadways. Of these, 7,772, some 20.8 per cent of the total, were defined as intersection crashes or intersection-related crashes. Through a multi-agency research initiative led by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has developed a prototype In