Skip to main content

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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Kistler offers flexible WiM solution
    April 13, 2021
    KiTraffic Plus sensors capture weight of trucks at speeds of up to 120 km/h
  • Half of top OEMs work on LiDAR technology for ADAS
    October 13, 2015
    Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, as part of an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) sensor suite, will be mostly deployed for active safety functions with only 29 per cent fitted for fully automated driving purposes by 2021, according to Frost & Sullivan. Out of the top 13 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), seven are working on automated driving passenger vehicles using a LiDAR. Frost & Sullivan’s latest analysis, LIDAR-based Strategies for Active Safety and Automated Driving from M
  • Advanced in-vehicle user interface - future developments
    February 1, 2012
    Dave McNamara and Craig Simonds, Autotechinsider LLC, look at human-machine interface development out to 2015. The US auto industry is going through the worst crisis it has faced since the Great Depression. But it has embraced technologies that will produce the best-possible driving experience for the public. Ford was the first OEM to announce in-car internet radio and SYNC, its signature-branded User Interface (UI), is held up as the shining example of change embracement.
  • Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    March 17, 2017
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h