autonomous

Autonomous cars aren't the future--they're already here and in use in London. Heathrow Airport swapped 2 diesel buses for 22 electric pods that shuttle passengers from Terminal 5 to the parking lot without the help of a driver.

Each electric pod can carry up to four passengers and their luggage. At the terminal, passengers request a pod and enter their destination.

Once in the pod, passengers don't have to worry about traffic or the pod's ability to navigate around cars because they travel on designated roadways. It takes the pods about five to six minutes to travel approximately 1.2 miles to the T5 Business Car Park.

The autonomous vehicles, made by Ultra PRT, have yet to be in an accident, according to an article in the New York Times. They operate at a top speed of around 25 mph, and can handle light snow. Because the electric vehicles operate only when needed, they're more energy efficient than the pair of diesel buses that formerly looped the airport, stopping at every drop-off point regardless of the passenger load.

But the best part of the service is that there's no driver to tip. … Read more

Automotive blog Jalopnik got a tip this week that one of Google's autonomous cars, a Prius, got in a fender bender near the search giant's Mountain View campus. Google issued a statement noting that the car was being driven by its human pilot when the accident occurred.

The Google Prius and another Prius were involved in a minor collision, although there are no details as to which driver might have been at fault. When Google revealed that its autonomous cars had been road testing in California a few years ago, it acknowledged that there had been one minor accident, but that the other car was at fault. During its testing of the cars, a driver has been at the wheel, ready to take over if the self-driving systems should fail.

Google should be able to confirm the details of this recent accident using the Prius' computer logs. If its sensors were turned on, they should paint a picture of what was happening around the car. Additionally, its systems would show if it was being driven manually, with details such as speed, braking, and wheel turn. … Read more

Audi of America has announced that it will be exhibiting at the 2010 SEMA Show, which is significant because this will be the first time that the premium automaker has participated in this very aftermarket-focused event.

Now, we've seen more than a few R8s and S5s at the SEMA Show in years prior, but these vehicles have always been brought by third-party purveyors of parts and accessories, not the automaker itself. This time it's personal, as Audi of America will have a presence on the show floor--alongside the likes of Ford, Hyundai, Honda, and others--unveiling new dealer-installed accessories, … Read more

Researchers say they've taken underwater robotics to the next level, successfully running an autonomous robotic vehicle off the Hawaiian Islands for more than three months, powered only by energy harnessed from changes in sea temperatures.

The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging vehicle (or Solo-Trec, for short) is the product of a years-long joint research project by NASA, the U.S. Navy, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the University of California at San Diego. The group said Monday that Solo-Trec is the first such vehicle to be powered entirely by the ocean's thermal energy.

Solo-Trec works by … Read more

Manning security checkpoints is hazardous duty, but vehicles still must be checked. So the U.S. Army is helping develop products that will allow soldiers to do their job, preferably from a distance.

Researchers and scientists at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (aka TARDEC) have focused on semi-autonomous robotic systems capable of remotely inspecting a vehicle's undercarriage for explosives or roam the line looking for suspicious activity.

TARDEC will showcase a couple of its favorite autonomous robotic systems this week at the Michigan Security Network Market Leadership Conference. Both units were developed for … Read more

A robot's potential advantage in autonomy is limited by its need to constantly refuel, but what if the robot could graze its way through a mission, skipping the gas station and foraging for biomass fuel along the way?

The biologically inspired Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) is designed to do just that--find, ingest and extract energy from biomass throughout its operating environment, and switch to conventional or alternative fuels (such as gasoline, diesel, propane and solar) when needed (see PDF).

Robotic Technology of Potomac, Md., and Cyclone Power Technologies of Pompano Beach, Fla., have completed an initial stage in a collaboration that could lead to the world's first grazing robot. The system would obtain energy by "engaging in biologically-inspired, organism-like, energy-harvesting behavior"--in other words, foraging and eating to keep itself going.

It's a tall order. The robot will need to first identify a suitable biomass (wood, grass, paper, etc.) and avoid the indigestible (rocks, metal, or glass).… Read more

Can robots be more humane than humans in fighting wars? Robotics engineer Ronald Arkin of the Georgia Institute of Technology believes this is a not-too-distant possibility. He has just finished a three-year contract with the U.S. Army designing software to create ethical robots.

As robots are increasingly being used by the U.S. military, Arkin has devoted his lifework to configuring robots with a built-in "guilt system" that eventually could make them better at avoiding civilian casualties than human soldiers. These military robots would be embedded with internationally prescribed laws of war and rules of engagement, such … Read more

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has created software that uses colonies of borg-like cyberrobots it says will help government agencies detect and fend off attacks on the nation's computer network infrastructure.

The Ubiquitous Network Transient Autonomous Mission Entities (Untame) differs from traditional security software agents in that its cybot "entities" form collectives that are mutually aware of the condition and activities of other bots in their colony (PDF).

When these cybots detect network intruders, they communicate with one another, preventing cybercrooks from creating and using a diversion in one spot within the network to then break through … Read more

On Monday, a 4-foot-long helicopter equipped with an artificial-intelligence system developed by computer scientists at Stanford University flew over the campus, according to Reuters. The helicopter had taught itself to fly by watching the aerobatics of a radio-controlled helicopter flown by a human. Also on Monday, I got my Warlock to level 66 in World of Warcraft. Yeah, I think I need to reevaluate my priorities.

The self-controlled mini-hopper performed flips, rolls, pirouettes, stall-turns, knife-edges, and an inverted hover over a field. Adam Coates, a Ph.D. student who worked on the project, said the machines can fly maneuvers at … Read more