05 Feb VIRTUAL VEHICLE Automated Drive Demonstrator
In fact, the VIRTUAL VEHICLE’s demonstrator car in form of a Ford Mondeo Hybrid is equipped with the latest ‘steer-by-wire’ and ‘brake-by-wire’ systems as well as simple driver assistance functions. Based on this vehicle, VIRTUAL VEHICLE is working on a unique research platform, which is developed in three stages: in the first step, which has already been largely completed, the researchers ensured that electronics are given full access to the vehicle, with the goal of operating the accelerator, brakes and steering by computer alone, creating an “artificial intelligence on wheels”.
Currently, the Graz researchers are in the second development stage: latest sensors (for example, Lidar, radar, cameras, GPS or Car-2-X-systems) are installed to enable a 360° field survey. At this stage, high-performance multicore computing platforms (such as NVIDIA, Infineon Aurix, and dSPACE) will also be integrated for data analysis and data fusing to prepare the third phase as best as possible.
In the final third stage, autonomous driving functions will be finally implemented. In this context, ‘deep learning’ methods are tested, which means that the car is ‘trained’ until it can follow a road independently.