The Ultimate Conveyance:Google Driverless Car
Fifteen years back, if you had to withdraw cash, you had to travel far to a bank and stand in a line with a slip to withdraw cash. But lately, the same is being done even in remote locations by machines without any hassle. In the industries, most of the heavy machinery is automated allowing for more accurate and speedier production. Automation is a growing trend in the present era. It is truly an engineering marvel since it involves a union of the different branches of engineering like computer science, electronics and mechanical to devise this technology. Electronic sensors sense the surroundings and send their response to microcontrollers which are programmed to give a desired response and actuators which actually carry out the response actions.
Driving a car is an art, maybe that’s why the government waits until you’re 18 years old to give you chance to earn a driver’s license. Not only should you be able to direct the car, but also have a keen sense of safety. Nevertheless, all the rules and regulations enforced to ensure safety fail to eradicate the occurrence of accidents. Therefore driving a car requires good understanding and experience of the working of a car. But what if a team of brilliant engineers devised a way to automate this complicated process?
GOOGLE'S PROJECT
We know them as the most popular search engine in the World Wide Web. They are much more than that. They pioneer in inspiring innovation in the field of technology which is beyond their time. The Google Driverless car is a project by Google which involves the development of technology to make a car self-dependent. The software that google use to automate cars is known as the “Google Chauffeur”. They do not produce a separate car but install the required equipment onto a regular car.
The aim of the project is to duplicate the actions of the ideal driver. So let’s first make a note of the variables at play when a human drives a car. The most important of senses is the sense of sight. For example, suppose we observe a person crossing the road and we are driving at a speed of 40 kmph. If the distance between the car and the person is 10m, we either apply sudden brakes or make a sharp turn to avoid hitting the person. If the person crossing the road is 100m away, we apply light brakes and reduce the speed so that the person crosses the road.
Is this the future of road travel? Or is google trying to reach an unreachable goal? Are the scenes from movies which made us wonder their possibility will no longer be a thing to wonder? Future lies in the efforts of present. Driverless car will soon be transcended into present but Flying cars are still a thing to wonder.
Apply this principle to design an electronic control system and the result is an autonomous car. Although it sounds simple, the software and hardware interaction on a big system like a car is in actuality quite sophisticated. The accuracy and dynamic range required in such a system is high. The primary device that monitors the environment is the “Laser Range Finder". The laser generates a detailed 3D image of what it observes around it. It measures the 3D environment and then compares it with high resolution maps of the real world. These lasers must have a 360° view of the surroundings and no optical hindrances. So the ideal location would be the roof of the car.
These are helpful in highways where fast moving traffic is prevalent and a keen sense of awareness is essential. A camera is positioned on the rear view mirror facing forward. This is meant to sense the traffic signals. The data received from the camera is programmed to give outputs according to the received inputs which may be the red, yellow or green light. A GPS locates the latitude and longitude position of the car which is used to place it on a satellite map. The wheels of the vehicle contain odometers which measure the speed of rotation of the wheels. The same data can be measured to calculate the load on the engine. The job of analyzing this data and producing a proper response is the job of “Artificial Intelligence”.
Is this the future of road travel? Or is google trying to reach an unreachable goal? Are the scenes from movies which made us wonder their possibility will no longer be a thing to wonder? Future lies in the efforts of present. Driverless car will soon be transcended into present but Flying cars are still a thing to wonder.
