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More Engineers Join AIM Team
Liese VanBeelen [picture not available]
The first of two people that joined the AIM Team Saturday is Liese VanBeelen. Liese says she loves robtotics and that her dream "job" would be to own and operate an automation company. Volunteering here at AIM's Driverless Truck Project should give her a good start in that direction. Her academic background includes hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical controls and control systems, electronics, robotics, programming, finance and management. Her professional experience is in electro-mechanical auto parts manufacturing (Product and Manufacturing Engineering), purchasing, accounting and documentation. This sounds like an excellent match for working on the AIM Team. Her first assignment is to spend some time with the LabVIEW 8.5 training materials and see what she thinks of LabVIEW as a development environment for our truck driving system.
Doug Burwell [picture not available]
The second person to join the AIM Team Saturday was Doug Burwell. Doug is a downsized engineer from GM's R&D department. He had been building cutting edge automotive technology and testing prototypes for GM which sound a lot like what we he will be doing for the AIM Team. His goal is to enroll in the No Worker Left Behind Program, get his k-12 teaching license, and become a high school math teacher. He has seen the need in this country for better math skills and wants to do something about it. I am looking forward to seeing what Doug does for the team. Doug's first assignment is familiarize himself with the agricultural self-driving systems that are on the market. It will be interesting to get his reaction to what he is about to discover.
AGV WENDY DARLING
As I search for bits of technology to help make our truck driverless I am finding that more of the human driver's "seat of the pants" skills become available off the shelf, each day, as they are codified and transfered into the vehicles:
Stability: Stability contol (brake by wire) for heavy-duty Class 8 trucks, such as Mack Road Stability Advantage by Bendix (Mack RSA), is such a system and adds less than $2,000 to the cost of a truck. "Mack RSA uses the existing ABS wheel speed sensors, along with steering, yaw and lateral acceleration inputs, to deactivate the throttle and selectively apply the brakes in sharp curves, sudden lane changes, or obstacle avoidance maneuvers, reducing the potential of a rollover." --http://www.macktrucks.com
This is simmilar to the Arvin-Meritor / Wabco system that we have been looking at to improve AGV WENDY DARLING's driving.
Navigation: GPS navigation systems with built in digital maps are being advertised in sales flyers as low as $129 with touch sensitive screen and many of the features needed for self-driving trucks. These systems include dynamic routing (if you get off track they recalculate the best way to get to your destination), they give turn by turn directions of how to get from where you are to where you have said you want to go. What remains to be done is to get them to discuss what they know about the road and route with the steering system. The digital maps are detailed enough to take you to a specific house address and contain speed limit information for every road segment, curve, road load rating, and overhead clearance - important when planning a route for a truck. These products for sale give a clear idea of what the size, shape, and production cost would be for that entire section of the Army's truck-autopilot.
Adaptive Cruise Control by Visteon
Collision Avoidance: The 0 to highway-speed version of Adaptive Cruise Control that works in stop and go traffic is already avoiding collisions with vehicles in the same lane. It adds less than $700 to the cost of a new car. Side Object Awareness, a radar system that monitors all four sides of a vehicle's surroundings can sense an obstacle or object that may obstruct the vehicle, warns the driver of potential hazards, monitoring the blind spot and even assisting with parallel parking. Avoiding collision with the vehicle ahead of you in your lane and vehicles to either side of you, is a large part of the overall collision avoidance problem solved.
Side Object Awareness by Visteon
2007 DARPA Urban Challenge
The "Big Check" - $2 million, First Place
GO ROBOTS !
Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves soldier's lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
http://aimagic.org
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html
More Engineers Join AIM Team
March 10, 2008
Liese VanBeelen [picture not available]
The first of two people that joined the AIM Team Saturday is Liese VanBeelen. Liese says she loves robtotics and that her dream "job" would be to own and operate an automation company. Volunteering here at AIM's Driverless Truck Project should give her a good start in that direction. Her academic background includes hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical controls and control systems, electronics, robotics, programming, finance and management. Her professional experience is in electro-mechanical auto parts manufacturing (Product and Manufacturing Engineering), purchasing, accounting and documentation. This sounds like an excellent match for working on the AIM Team. Her first assignment is to spend some time with the LabVIEW 8.5 training materials and see what she thinks of LabVIEW as a development environment for our truck driving system.
Doug Burwell [picture not available]
The second person to join the AIM Team Saturday was Doug Burwell. Doug is a downsized engineer from GM's R&D department. He had been building cutting edge automotive technology and testing prototypes for GM which sound a lot like what we he will be doing for the AIM Team. His goal is to enroll in the No Worker Left Behind Program, get his k-12 teaching license, and become a high school math teacher. He has seen the need in this country for better math skills and wants to do something about it. I am looking forward to seeing what Doug does for the team. Doug's first assignment is familiarize himself with the agricultural self-driving systems that are on the market. It will be interesting to get his reaction to what he is about to discover.
AGV WENDY DARLING
As I search for bits of technology to help make our truck driverless I am finding that more of the human driver's "seat of the pants" skills become available off the shelf, each day, as they are codified and transfered into the vehicles:
Stability: Stability contol (brake by wire) for heavy-duty Class 8 trucks, such as Mack Road Stability Advantage by Bendix (Mack RSA), is such a system and adds less than $2,000 to the cost of a truck. "Mack RSA uses the existing ABS wheel speed sensors, along with steering, yaw and lateral acceleration inputs, to deactivate the throttle and selectively apply the brakes in sharp curves, sudden lane changes, or obstacle avoidance maneuvers, reducing the potential of a rollover." --http://www.macktrucks.com
This is simmilar to the Arvin-Meritor / Wabco system that we have been looking at to improve AGV WENDY DARLING's driving.
Navigation: GPS navigation systems with built in digital maps are being advertised in sales flyers as low as $129 with touch sensitive screen and many of the features needed for self-driving trucks. These systems include dynamic routing (if you get off track they recalculate the best way to get to your destination), they give turn by turn directions of how to get from where you are to where you have said you want to go. What remains to be done is to get them to discuss what they know about the road and route with the steering system. The digital maps are detailed enough to take you to a specific house address and contain speed limit information for every road segment, curve, road load rating, and overhead clearance - important when planning a route for a truck. These products for sale give a clear idea of what the size, shape, and production cost would be for that entire section of the Army's truck-autopilot.
Adaptive Cruise Control by Visteon
Collision Avoidance: The 0 to highway-speed version of Adaptive Cruise Control that works in stop and go traffic is already avoiding collisions with vehicles in the same lane. It adds less than $700 to the cost of a new car. Side Object Awareness, a radar system that monitors all four sides of a vehicle's surroundings can sense an obstacle or object that may obstruct the vehicle, warns the driver of potential hazards, monitoring the blind spot and even assisting with parallel parking. Avoiding collision with the vehicle ahead of you in your lane and vehicles to either side of you, is a large part of the overall collision avoidance problem solved.
Side Object Awareness by Visteon
2007 DARPA Urban Challenge
The "Big Check" - $2 million, First Place
GO ROBOTS !
Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves soldier's lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
http://aimagic.org
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html
Posted by Paul Grayson on March 10, 2008 | Comments (0)
Industries: Machine Control
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