Cognitive Technologies to develop autonomous tram in Russia

Cognitive Technologies has joined forces with Russian manufacturer PC Transport Systems to deploy an autonomous tram on the streets of Moscow by 2022. Cognitive says that its simplified system means autonomous trams will appear on public roads much earlier than self-driving cars. The company claims its system will detect vehicle and other trams, traffic lights, pedestrians, tram and bus stops, railway and switches and obstacles. Also, the technology will allow the tram to stop in front of obstacles a
February 14, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Cognitive Technologies has joined forces with Russian manufacturer PC Transport Systems to deploy an autonomous tram on the streets of Moscow by 2022.

Cognitive says that its simplified system means autonomous trams will appear on public roads much earlier than self-driving cars.
 
The company claims its system will detect vehicle and other trams, traffic lights, pedestrians, tram and bus stops, railway and switches and obstacles. Also, the technology will allow the tram to stop in front of obstacles and maintain a safe distance to the cars ahead, accelerate and stop.

The trams will feature a combination of sensors which include 20 video cameras and up to ten radars to help detect road scene objects at night as well as in rain, fog and snowy conditions.
 
Olga Uskova, president of Cognitive, says the company’s low-level data fusion technology allows the computer vision model to use the combined raw data coming from cameras and radars to provide a better understanding of the road scene.

“Cameras, for example, correctly recognise objects in 80% of cases, additional data from radar raises the detection accuracy to 99% and higher,” Uskova adds.

The trams will use GPS sensors and will use high-precision cartography along its route.

Initially, an intelligent control system will serve as an active driving assistant in dangerous situations. A second stage test will follow in which an operator will remain in the cabin as a backup driver.

During the next two months, autonomous tram tests with the operator in the cabin will take place in closed facilities which will then be followed by a trail in Moscow.

Related Content

  • Traffic management is increasingly image conscious
    January 27, 2025
    At the Vision show in Stuttgart, Germany, a wide variety of traffic-related solutions were on display. Adam Hill takes the temperature of the industry…
    Read More
  • ITS European Congress: safer and cleaner mobility
    August 6, 2019
    Smart mobility and the increasing digitalisation of transport were among the main themes of this year’s ITS European Congress in the Netherlands. Ben Spencer picks some highlights from conference sessions which considered possible future developments Navigating between the Evoluon conference centre - a former science museum that resembles a giant-sized UFO - and an automotive campus, there was a lot to see at the 13th ITS European Congress in Brainport, Eindhoven. Organised by Ertico – ITS Europe and th
    Read More
  • Data collection becoming a crowded market
    October 26, 2017
    New ways of gathering data can revolutionise traffic and travel management, so is the writing on the wall for the traditional methods? Jon Masters reports. There are two big industries that stand to be revolutionised by massive increases in data – healthcare and transportation, says Finlay Clarke, the UK managing director of the smartphone sat nav traffic app, Waze. “At present we’re really only at the start of how cities, in particular, will be transformed,” he says.
    Read More
  • Additional functionality gives loops a continued lease of life
    March 20, 2014
    Two decades after the death of the inductive loops was predicted, Matt Zinn, technical services manager at Eberle Design says the technology still offers advantages. More than 20 years ago the emergence of video detection systems led many to foretell the end of inductive loops. In the intervening years advocates of radar, infrared and wireless detection technologies have also claimed that loops were on their way out. But in fact, by all calculations, the use of loops has actually increased and although
    Read More

Highlighted Content