Traffic robocops’ to guide driverless cars
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WASHINGTON: Engineers have developed a new robotic 'traffic cop' to help automated driverless cars in future to cruise through intersections faster with more safety.
Researchers said because such smart intersections would minimize human error, they would be safer than intersections are now.
Intelligent crossroads would also save every car an average of 35 seconds of wait time per stoplight, the Discovery News reported.
Hesham Rakha, a Virginia Tech engineering professor, and his doctoral student, Ismail Zohdy , in their calculations, assumed that everyone will be using robotic cars in the near future.
"You will not be driving your car anymore; you will be driven by your car," Zohdy said. "We are not talking about the distant future," Rakha said.
Robotic cars are closer to reality than many may think, Rakha and Zohdy said about their smart traffic signal. They cited some driverless cars under development now, including Google-made cars and research vehicles from Stanford University.
While other researchers have written programmes for how driverless cars should act at intersections, Rakha and Zohdy say their controller takes into account more variables than other systems do. For example, it calculates different cars' engine capacities.
In the futuristic intersections that Rakha and Zohdy imagined, cars coming up to the intersection would send data about their location and speed to a central controller . The controller would gather information about the weather, the speed limit at the intersection and how many lanes the intersection has. Once a car gets close enough, the controller would direct the car along paths that it has calculated are the swiftest, while remaining safe.
The result is an intersection where cars don't need to pause as often or as long as human-driven vehicles need to.
"The proposed intersection controller, which allows vehicles to keep moving, reduces the delay for each vehicle compared to traditional intersection control. Keeping vehicles moving is also more fuel efficient and reduces emissions," Rakha said.
Researchers said because such smart intersections would minimize human error, they would be safer than intersections are now.
Intelligent crossroads would also save every car an average of 35 seconds of wait time per stoplight, the Discovery News reported.
Hesham Rakha, a Virginia Tech engineering professor, and his doctoral student, Ismail Zohdy , in their calculations, assumed that everyone will be using robotic cars in the near future.
"You will not be driving your car anymore; you will be driven by your car," Zohdy said. "We are not talking about the distant future," Rakha said.
Robotic cars are closer to reality than many may think, Rakha and Zohdy said about their smart traffic signal. They cited some driverless cars under development now, including Google-made cars and research vehicles from Stanford University.
While other researchers have written programmes for how driverless cars should act at intersections, Rakha and Zohdy say their controller takes into account more variables than other systems do. For example, it calculates different cars' engine capacities.
In the futuristic intersections that Rakha and Zohdy imagined, cars coming up to the intersection would send data about their location and speed to a central controller . The controller would gather information about the weather, the speed limit at the intersection and how many lanes the intersection has. Once a car gets close enough, the controller would direct the car along paths that it has calculated are the swiftest, while remaining safe.
The result is an intersection where cars don't need to pause as often or as long as human-driven vehicles need to.
"The proposed intersection controller, which allows vehicles to keep moving, reduces the delay for each vehicle compared to traditional intersection control. Keeping vehicles moving is also more fuel efficient and reduces emissions," Rakha said.
