VTT 's robot car now sees through fog

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland says it is one step closer to creating a safe automated vehicle through upgrades made to its Marilyn robot car. The vehicle can now see through foggy and snowy conditions, navigating without stopping. Additionally, VTT says, the car can see humans through fog and avoid accidents automatically. Marilyn now has light imaging, detection, and ranging (Lidar) mounted on its roof, which the company claims enables it to see wavelengths beyond the human senses.
May 15, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
814 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland says it is one step closer to creating a safe automated vehicle through upgrades made to its Marilyn robot car. The vehicle can now see through foggy and snowy conditions, navigating without stopping.


Additionally, VTT says, the car can see humans through fog and avoid accidents automatically.

Marilyn now has light imaging, detection, and ranging (Lidar) mounted on its roof, which the company claims enables it to see wavelengths beyond the human senses.

Matti Kutila, VTT’s project manager, says: "Although Marilyn's vision is limited to roughly 30m in thick fog, the new Lidar type allows the car to be driven slowly rather than having to fully stop.”

The car now features optical component wavelengths via the 1550 nanometre Lidar and has additional intelligence for its software design to improve sensor capabilities. Software modules have been built in for the filtering of point clouds and the assessment of scanner reliability.

However, Marilyn's automotive radars and Lidar's detection of non-metallic obstacles and resolution is limited, particularly when trying to recognise shapes.

Related Content

  • February 23, 2017
    LiDAR sets its sights on future problems
    AAdvances in LiDAR are helping transport authorities improve services and identify potential problem areas, as geospatial technology expert Dr Neil Slatcher explains. The effects of climate change on the transport infrastructure have long been a cause of concern within the transportation sector - and not only on the structures themselves but also on the surrounding areas. This year, those concerns have become reality with landslides, structural collapses and surfacing issues impacting services across the wo
    Read More
  • January 24, 2017
    Harnessing the strengths of CMOS for ITS applications
    Sony’s Arnaud Destruels explains the benefits of CMOS sensors for ITS applications. In the transport sector roadside, trackside and platform cameras were devices for viewing and assessing a situation while individual sensors did all the clever stuff like traffic counting, speed calculation, queue lengths, signal status and so on. Well, not any more.
    Read More
  • April 21, 2017
    5G-Safe project developing road weather services based on vehicle data
    VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is coordinating the 5G-Safe project, which is part of Tekes’ Challenge Finland competition. It is focused on the identification of local weather and road conditions on the basis of data collected from vehicles, and the sending of warnings to road users. In addition, real-time video and radar data will be exchanged between passing vehicles. Other issues being investigated include the use of data on local road weather conditions to improve the situational awareness of
    Read More
  • May 13, 2014
    Finland’s VTT technology miniaturises measuring devices
    According to Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, technology developed by the centre makes it possible to miniaturise an entire measuring laboratory to the size of a small sensor. Using the technology, the Fabry project at VTT has developed smart optical measuring devices for uses that include optimisation of vehicle engines, reduction and monitoring of environmental emissions, and quality control of pharmaceuticals. Participants in the Fabry project to develop spectroscopic sensor devi
    Read More

Highlighted Content