Autonomous vehicles, also known as unmanned driving vehicles, computer-driven vehicles, or wheeled mobile robots, are a type of intelligent vehicle that implements unmanned driving through a computer system.

Introduction to Autonomous Driving Terms

The development of autonomous vehicle technology boasts a history of several decades in the 20th century, and it showed a trend close to practicality in the early 21st century.

By relying on artificial intelligence, visual computing, radar, monitoring equipment, and the global positioning system to coordinate and cooperate, the computer can operate the vehicle autonomously and safely without any human intervention. For example, Google's autonomous driving car obtained the first autonomous driving vehicle permit in the United States in May 2012, and it is expected to enter the market for sales from 2015 to 2017.

Principle of Autonomous Driving Technology

Automobile autonomous driving technology includes video cameras, radar sensors, and laser rangefinders to understand the surrounding traffic conditions and navigate the road ahead through a detailed map collected by a human-driven car. According to the level of automation, it is divided into four stages of unmanned driving: assisted driving, partial automation, high automation, and complete automation:

1. Driving Assistance System (DAS): The goal is to assist drivers, including providing important or useful driving-related information, and issuing clear and concise warnings when things start to become dangerous, such as the "Lane Departure Warning" (LDW) system, etc.

2. Partially Automated Systems: Systems that can intervene automatically when the driver receives a warning but fails to take action in time, such as "Automatic Emergency Braking" (AEB) system and "Emergency Lane Assistance" (ELA) system, etc.

3. Highly Automated Systems: Systems that can take on the responsibility of controlling the vehicle for a long or short period, but still require the driver to monitor driving activities.

4. Fully Automated Systems: Systems that allow unmanned driving vehicles, and allow all passengers in the car to engage in other activities without monitoring. This level of automation lets passengers engage in computer work, rest and sleep, and other entertainment activities.

Structural Performance

Autonomous driving vehicles use video cameras, radar sensors, and laser rangefinders to understand the surrounding traffic conditions, and navigate the road ahead through a detailed map collected by human-driven cars.

Lidar:

The "bucket" device on the roof is a lidar of the autonomous driving car. It can scan the surroundings within a radius of 60 meters and present the result in a 3D map, providing the computer with the initial judgment basis.

Front Camera:

Google has installed a camera near the rearview mirror of the car to recognize traffic signals, and with the help of the onboard computer, identify moving objects such as vehicles, bicycles, or pedestrians in front.

Sensor for Left Rear Wheel:

Many people may think at first glance that this resembles a direction control device, but in fact, this is a position sensor of the autonomous driving car. It helps the computer locate the car by measuring the lateral movement of the car and determining its correct position on the road.

Front and Rear Radar:

Google has installed 4 radar sensors on the autonomous car (3 in the front and 1 in the back). They are used to measure the distance between the car and objects around it.

Main Control Computer:

The most important main control computer of the autonomous driving car is arranged in the rear compartment, where there is not only a computer for computation, but also a Topcon rangefinder integrator. This core equipment will be responsible for the judgment and implementation of the car's driving route and method.