New technology gives smart cars ‘X-ray’ vision, detects hidden pedestrians,

Australian researchers have developed disruptive technology allowing autonomous vehicles to track pedestrians hiding behind buildings and cyclists obscured by large cars, trucks and buses.

The autonomous vehicle uses game-changing technology that allows it to “see” the world around it, including using X-ray style vision that penetrates through pedestrians in blind spots and detects cyclists obscured by speeding vehicles.

The IMOVE Cooperative Research Centre-funded project, in collaboration with the University of Sydney’s Australian Center for Field Robotics and Australian connected vehicle solutions company Kohda Wireless, has released its new findings in a final report after three years of research and development.

Applications of the technology, which is being commercialized by Kohda, include an emerging and promising technology for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) called cooperative or collective perception (CP).

Using roadside ITS information-sharing units equipped with additional sensors such as cameras and lidar (“ITS stations”), vehicles can share “views” with others using vehicle-to-X (V2X) communication. can.

This allows autonomous vehicles to tap into a variety of perspectives. Being connected to a system greatly increases the range of perception, allowing connected vehicles to see things they would not normally see.

Engineers and scientists who developed the technology said it could benefit all vehicles, not just those connected to the system.

“This is a game changer for both human-powered and autonomous vehicles, which we hope will significantly improve the efficiency and safety of road transport,” said Professor Eduardo Nebot from the Australian Center for Field Robotics.

“The connected vehicle was able to track a pedestrian visually obstructed by a building with CP information. This was achieved seconds before local perception sensors or the driver could possibly see a single pedestrian around the corner Provides additional time for the driver or navigation, stack to react to this safety threat,” he said.

Another experiment demonstrated the ability of CP technology to safely interact with pedestrians while responding based on perception information provided by an ITS station on the side of the road.

The three-year project also demonstrated the expected behavior of a connected vehicle when interacting with a pedestrian running towards a designated crossing area.

“Using the ITS system, the connected autonomous vehicle managed to take preemptive action: braking and stopping before the pedestrian crossing area based on the anticipated movement of the pedestrian,” Professor Nebot said.

“Pedestrian tracking, prediction, path planning and decision making were based on perception information obtained from ITS roadside stations.

“CP enables smart vehicles to break down the physical and practical limits of onboard perception sensors,” he said.

Lead project researcher Dr. Mao Shan said research confirmed using CP could improve awareness of vulnerable road users and safety in many traffic scenarios.

“Our research has demonstrated that a connected vehicle can ‘see’ a pedestrian around corners. More importantly, we demonstrate how autonomous vehicles can move and walk autonomously and safely. may interact with pedestrians, relying only on information from the ITS roadside station.” said.

Professor Paul Alexander, Chief Technical Officer, Kohda Wireless, said the new technology “has the potential to enhance security in scenarios with both human-powered and autonomous vehicles.”

Professor Alexander said, “CP enables smart vehicles to break down the physical and practical limits of onboard perception sensors, and embrace improved perception quality and robustness.”

“This can reduce the cost per vehicle to facilitate large-scale deployment of CAV technology.”

Professor Alexander said that using the CP for manually connected vehicles “also brings an attractive benefit of enabling perception capability without having to retrofit the vehicle with the sensing sensor and associated processing unit.”

iMOVE Managing Director Ian Christensen said that the project will work for the benefit of not only Australians, but also for road users around the world including pedestrians and cyclists, with new innovations and collaborations with scientists for the commercial and public good. The industry is a great example.

“When we bring industry and scientists together, we can achieve many great things as a nation. iMOVE CRC is proud to start this exciting project and many others like it – that are our best self.” And it’s about having the brightest minds work together to develop new technologies and innovations for real-world problems and needs,” Christensen said.