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| Sensors on MadeInGermany Autonomous Car |
The robot car that the Free University of Berlin developed, is the prefecture of car technology for the autonomous vehicles of the future.
The preliminary work was done between 2006 and 2007 by the development of autonomous vehicle, "Spirit of Berlin", a converted Dodge Caravan, took the 2007 the autonomous robot race in California. The race took place in a closed barracks, a kind of urban environment, under controlled conditions.
MadeinGermany is a VW Passat with drive-by-wire technology. This means that the CAN-bus from the vehicle can be accessed directly from their computer. The CAN bus is the control center of modern vehicles. The engine, brakes, steering wheel etc. send sensor data via the CAN bus and can also access these commands lines obtained. A CAN-bus at the connected computer can speed up the engine, apply the brakes or turn the steering wheel.
MadeinGermany knows its position through the use of a GPS unit from the company Applanix. The GPS signal is received by an antenna and the navigation computer calculates the current vehicle position. An inertial (IMU), equipped with accelerometers and gyroscope, the position of the vehicle will interpolate if a brief occlusion of the satellites occurs - for example, if the vehicle in a tunnel drives or high-rise buildings obscure the satellite signal, the inertial precision further measure the movement of the vehicle and thus the position track of MadeinGermany on the map. So the vehicle from any point in the to every other city be ordered. The computer determines the optimum route in the city map and passes it to the control software.
