Author: Maria Temming / Source: Science News
A new kind of navigation system could help self-driving cars take the road less traveled.
Most autonomous vehicles test-driving in cities navigate using 3-D maps marking every curbside and off-ramp with almost centimeter-level precision (SN Online: 11/21/17).
But there are millions of miles of open road that tech companies aren’t likely to plot in such detail any time soon.Researchers now have developed a new autonomous navigation system that guides vehicles without such high-res maps, according to research being presented May 22 at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Brisbane, Australia. Cars equipped with this tech could hit the road for excursions off the beaten path.
The navigation system charts a course down unfamiliar roads much like a human driver would — by continually scanning its surroundings, albeit with a laser sensor, to gauge how close it is to the edges of the road. Meanwhile, the…
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