Technolution shows progress in autonomous vehicles

Dutch company Technolution is demonstrating its latest progress in keeping autonomous vehicles safe. A demonstration area on its stand has several miniature vehicles scurrying around. They do not always avoid each other but, as Dr Edwin Mein explained, that is part of the process of working out rules to ensure autonomous vehicles can navigate safely.
October 8, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

Dutch company 818 Technolution is demonstrating its latest progress in keeping autonomous vehicles safe.
A demonstration area on its stand has several miniature vehicles scurrying around. They do not always avoid each other but, as Dr Edwin Mein explained, that is part of the process of working out rules to ensure autonomous vehicles can navigate safely.

Technolution is looking into several facets of this research area. It began by asking what kind of sensors would be required for such vehicles, as well as data handling and data fusion.

Having started off with computer simulations, Technolution has now moved on to using real-world miniature vehicles. Most of the structure of the miniature vehicles – the chassis and wheels, for example – have been made by the company using 3D printing.

To simulate GPS, infrared signals are transmitted from four miniature towers at the corners of the exhibition area and picked up by receivers on the mini-vehicles, telling them their position and where they are going.

“Every car has a path it has to follow, and to try to avoid the walls around the table and the other cars. To do that, we’ve added ultrasonic radar systems on the back and front of each car to detect things in front of the vehicle.”

Technolution has no intention of producing autonomous cars itself; rather, “We intend to show what we can do to help other companies produce autonomous vehicles,” said Dr Mein.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • US regulator ‘paves the way for Google’s self-driving car’
    February 11, 2016
    A letter to Google, the US federal transport regulator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), appears to pave the way for self-driving cars, but adds the proviso that the rule-making could take some time. Google had requested clarification of a number of provisions in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs) as they apply to Google’s described design for self-driving vehicles (SDVs). “If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable
    Read More
  • The twisting path to enforcement’s future
    June 5, 2014
    Survey reveals some division of views about enforcement’s future as Colin Sowman discovers. Technological advances and legislative changes pose many questions for those involved in road enforcement, ranging from the changing demands of privacy and data protection legislation to the practicalities on multi-speed enforcement. So to get the industry’s views ITS International took soundings on some of these bigger questions. In a world where many vehicles are fitted with GPS linked ‘black box’ telematics system
    Read More
  • Amsterdam Group turn ITS theory into practice
    August 6, 2013
    ASECAP’s Marko Jandrisits discusses the Amsterdam Group’s efforts to bring a sense of order to cooperative ITS deployments. When an issue arises which is deemed to require a technological solution governments and public-sector agencies around the world all too often tread the same sorry path. A decision is made to research and develop said technology to the production-ready stage, the work is done and the technology realised but then the money for deployment runs out and the technology is left on the shelf
    Read More
  • New driver study reveals Britain’s ten worst driving habits
    September 23, 2016
    According to a study by business driving expert, the Fuelcard Company, which questioned 1,000 drivers across the UK more than half of British drivers (52 per cent) have picked up some potentially dangerous driving habits. These include going too fast or too slow, texting while driving, using the phone or hands-free, eating or smoking at the wheel, driving too close to other vehicles, throwing rubbish out of the window, hogging the middle lane and checking phone notifications. Interestingly, more than
    Read More

Highlighted Content