RoboCar from ZMP one more step for AI: Automotive Intelligence
When I saw this photo, I couldn’t help but think that it was cute. After all, it is a car with a cute little robot head on it. I started to have Speed Buggy flashbacks.
As it turns out, this car is part of a serious car robotics platform study by a Tokyo-based robotics company ZMP. Apparently, these people believe that cars of the future will be intelligent vehicles, able to move and interact with each other independently.
They may not be able to drive around on auto-pilot like Knight Rider, but they can communicate with each other, which will allow scientists of the future to figure out how to avoid traffic jams. These robot cars will probably have some other terrific features like parking automatically and such.
So, are we looking at a future where the cars are these robots? I’m not certain whether I want my next automobile to have a giant head on its hood, even if it has the CCD stereo camera, range of sensors, and infrared laser system like these Robocars from ZMP.
Still, the idea that cars can be intelligent, even semi-intelligent, fascinates me. I really don’t see how having smarter cars could prevent traffic jams. You would think that drivers would simply avoid them. That, or make the cars so they could fly.
This video DigInfoNews in Tokyo shot shows the most recent version (available for $11,300):
In case you ever wondered what practical purpose robotics as a field of science has, RoboCar [JP] might be one answer. That’s the name of a car robotics platform (and robot) currently in development at Tokyo-based robotics venture ZMP.
The goal is to anticipate functions of next-generation, “intelligent” vehicles – based on the interesting idea that those vehicles will have a lot in common with robots that can move and interact with each other autonomously.
ZMP says their mini cars (3kg, 429×195×212mm) are helpful when it comes to testing features such as automatic parking or hazard avoidance. The cars can also communicate with each other, enabling researchers to study how traffic jams can be avoided in the future, for example.
Equipped with a CCD stereo camera (30fps), a range of sensors, and an infrared laser system, the battery-powered RoboCar can drive up to one hour on a single charge.