[ExI] Chinese-made unmanned vehicle passes freeway test

James Clement clementlawyer at gmail.com
Wed Jan 23 19:41:29 UTC 2013


http://www.china.org.cn/china/2013-01/23/content_27773068.htm

Chinese-made unmanned vehicle passes freeway test

An unmanned vehicle designed by Military Transportation University of the
PLA (MTU) recently won top prize in the fourth Future Challenge, a contest
for intelligent vehicles.
 [image: Unmanned military vehicle passes freeway test.[File
photo]]<http://www.china.org.cn/china/index.htm>

Unmanned military vehicle passes freeway test.[File photo]

The vehicle, a third generation prototype named "Fierce Lion 3", completed
a 114-kilometer journey within 85 minutes, with a top speed of 105
kilometers per hour, making itself China's first unmanned vehicle to pass a
freeway test.

Third party certification agencies, including National Natural Science
Foundation and Beijing Institute of Technology deemed that the vehicle had
successfully completed the journey with no human intervention, and its
technology had reached a world-class standard.

Fierce Lion 3 was directed to complete a wide range of maneuvers on the
freeway, including cruising in one lane, following traffic, changing lanes,
passing slower traffic, and responding to human instructions.

The vehicle is equipped with an override system to allow human
intervention, to prevent the vehicle from causing damage to the passengers
or other vehicles in case of emergency.

The in-car computer system controlled the entire journey, including
acceleration, braking, passing, and pulling up. The researchers did nothing
but set the vehicle's destination coordinates.

During the trip, Fierce Lion 3 passed slower traffic 33 times. The
autopilot system even once refrained from making a pass after the radar
detected the rear traffic was coming in at too fast a speed to make the
maneuver safe.

Observers said they saw the vehicle darting away, "as if an experienced
driver was holding the wheel."

The vehicle was equipped with radars, video cameras and a sat-nav device
that provided visual for the car.

Three cameras monitored the front and side traffic, sending lane marks and
buffer zone visuals to the computer. The radars detected the distance
between the car bumper and the front traffic, advising the computer either
to accelerate or to slow down.

Three computers, including one for backup use, analyze all information and
control the mechanical system similar to a passenger jet's fly-by-wire
avionics.

A professor from the MTU, Xu Youchun, said computer-controlled driving is
safer, as maneuvers are more precise and road rage is eliminated. He said
the computer strictly ensures a safe braking distance of 100 meters.

In total, MTU's unmanned intelligent vehicles have registered over 10,000
kilometers of test drives. The cars' performance has been stable on both
urban streets and rural roads.

Regarding the future application of unmanned vehicles, automation expert
Zheng Nanning, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said such
technology could save manpower in military logistics. A transport convoy
would only require one driver to lead the group.

Also, in civilian use, an unmanned vehicle could take over the vehicle to
reduce driver fatigue and allow the drive to doze off safely. If connected
to the Internet and cloud system, an in-car system could optimize
directions. Eventually, Zheng said, unmanned city buses will be possible.
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