Laser Scanners Guide Fully Autonomous Car Around Berlin

AutoNOMOs Labs, a German Federal Ministry of Education and Research-funded university project, has developed the first fully autonomous car, ‘MadeInGermany,’ for driving on the highways and streets of Brandenburg and Berlin States.

Researchers modified a VW Passat to be driven by computers. The car’s chassis is integrated with multiple sensors that provide information about the persons and other vehicles on the street. These sensors will help the car to switch lanes, adjust speed and avoid obstacles. The car has six laser scanners, three of which are located at the front while the other three are located at the rear. These provide 360° coverage of the surroundings. The scanners emit invisible infrared laser pulses and then detect their echo to determine the distance to various objects. The car has two color cameras for identifying traffic lights and the state they are in. At the back of the rear view mirror a black and white video camera is placed to detect white lane strips on the road. This will help center the autonomous car on its desired lane. On top of the car a rotating laser scanner is placed for acquiring the environment’s three-dimensional structure. It gets nearly 1,000,000 scan points in a second.

The autonomous car uses an accurate GPS system and a city map to identify its location on the streets of Berlin. Commands originating from the computer are passed on to the steering wheel, the accelerator, and the brakes directly for controlling the car.

A safety driver was behind the wheel according to the requirements of the driving permit for the test. Whenever the driver pressed the brake pedal the computers would be disconnected and the safety driver would gain control. Freie Universität Berlin researchers test drove the car for 80 km, in four trips between the Brandenburg Gate and the International Congress Center in full traffic, and without any incidents.