Anyway I though this might be interesting. Cars that drive themselves. Fortunately they are not really cars but funky golf carts but it still is creepy.
Scary
That reminds me of the Lego robots I used to make, just larger. Handyboard and sonar… @.@
That is Very cool… i like the part how it avoids obstacles.
i can see in a few years, just ROBOTS are being used for transportation.
If you get a chance in the next couple of years, try to get into the Bodyshop at the Toledo Jeep Assembly Plant. Materials are delivered to the line stations by robot forklifts. Unlike the AGV’s of the late 80’s and Early 90’s (eliminated due to the fact they were slow expensive reliability problems), these self navigate based on optical targets and beacons. An empty station call, goes to a server which dispatches the next available truck. It then goes to the correct pickup station, then navigates to the correct floor station.
My personal opinion, cool but overly complex for the task. If the system was designed a couple of years later, it probably would have used a corrected GPS system. Optical in a Bodyshop is risky due to the heavy welding environment.
Sorry, a little off topic.
Ben
In this perspective; the port of Hamburg, Germany has totally computer controlled loading, storing and unloading system. It is crazy. They have cars/trucks (not just golf-carts) and they drive around controlled by computers.
I couldn’t find a webside though (only in German). So if someone finds one - Post it!
if you are interested in cars that drive themselves you should look at the darpa grand challenge… Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - Content not found
shameless plug for my team http://gcart.rit.edu
and for people keeping up with the fact that our 5 min video was just due here is the direct link for that http://gcart.rit.edu/videos/