Drone captures map of EastLink tunnel for self-driving car trials

EastLink has used an aerial drone from Telstra to capture a Lidar map for its Mullum Mullum tunnel in Australia to help support safe trials of fully self-driving cars. Doug Spencer-Roy, EastLink’s corporate affairs and marketing manager, said that trial sites need to be mapped in high resolution to allow self-driving car prototypes to be conducted under controlled conditions to test their safe operation. Additionally, the process can also support the company’s maintenance activities, by allowing the deta
April 9, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

8735 EastLink has used an aerial drone from Telstra to capture a Lidar map for its Mullum Mullum tunnel in Australia to help support safe trials of fully self-driving cars.

Doug Spencer-Roy, EastLink’s corporate affairs and marketing manager, said that trial sites need to be mapped in high resolution to allow self-driving car prototypes to be conducted under controlled conditions to test their safe operation.

Additionally, the process can also support the company’s maintenance activities, by allowing the details of the tunnel infrastructure to be viewed in 3D when planning maintenance work, Roy added.

The self-driving cars are pre-loaded with a Lidar map of the trials area. In addition, the vehicle’s built-in Lidar scanner aims to capture a real-time Lidar view of the vehicle’s surroundings.

EastLink says the autonomous driving system compares the real-time Lidar view against the pre-loaded Lidar map to increase the accuracy of its self-positioning system. The solution also intends to identify objects that it needs to avoid such as pedestrians, cyclists, animals and other vehicles.

Andrew Wildblood, Telstra Enterprise’s executive director growth, said: “Drones are an important emerging technology that will have many applications and benefits for our business, our customers and the wider community.

“Telstra will continue to play an important role in this space, with our world class network enabling our customers to take advantage of drone technology now and into the future. Telstra has a dedicated cross-company drone team that are actively exploring the efficiency, cost reduction and safety benefits that drones can deliver our customers, like EastLink, across a number of different industry sectors.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Sign language reduces human error says Clearview
    September 26, 2019
    Wrong-way warning systems and advanced queue detection can help to reduce human error. They can also cut road accidents – and therefore road deaths, says Clearview Intelligence Where were nearly 1,800 deaths on the UK’s roads in 2018 – an average of five people dying each day. The largest single cause of serious injury is crashes at junctions (accounting for 33% of incidents), while the largest single cause of death was run-off road crashes (30%) “With vehicles increasingly being designed with saf
    Read More
  • Volvo Cars plans to test 100 autonomous cars in China
    April 8, 2016
    Volvo Cars has announced plans to launch China’s most advanced autonomous driving experiment in which local drivers will test autonomous driving cars on public roads in everyday driving conditions. Volvo expects the experiment to involve up to 100 cars and will in coming months begin negotiations with interested cities in China to see which is able to provide the necessary permissions, regulations and infrastructure to allow the experiment to go ahead. Volvo believes the introduction of autonomous d
    Read More
  • Swedish drivers support speed cameras
    March 17, 2014
    In sharp contrast to many other countries drivers in Sweden support speed cameras and the planned expansion of the automated enforcement network. Sweden is embarking on a massive expansion of its speed camera network and is doing so with both a very high level of public acceptance and without its drivers feeling persecuted; a feat the administrations in many other countries would like to emulate. So how did this envious state of affairs come about? Magnus Ferlander director of business development and ma
    Read More
  • Off road trials for electric highways technology
    August 11, 2015
    Following the completion of the feasibility study commissioned by Highways England into dynamic wireless power transfer technologies, off road trials of the technology needed to power electric and hybrid vehicles on England’s major roads are due to take place later this year. The trials are the first of their kind and will test how the technology would work safely and effectively on the country’s motorways and major A roads, allowing drivers of ultra-low emission vehicles to travel long distances without
    Read More

Highlighted Content