Unmanned Systems Technology 019 | Navya Autonom Cab | Batteries | UGVs Insight | UAV Factory UAV28-EFI | Swiss Aerobotics Hummel | UMEX 2018 report | Antennas | Oceanology International 2018 report

autonomous vehicles to travel very close together while maintaining a safe braking distance. “We have a specific team dedicated to all these applications. It will be very important in the future, I think,” he says. However, there is already a basic V2V capability of sorts available now as the Cabs can communicate with each other through the company’s supervision centre, to which they are linked via 3G/4G cellular modems that can carry data and voice. The company’s open architecture approach though is intended to allow it to incorporate 5G technology when it is implemented. The Cab can operate without comms thanks to its stored 3D map of its operating area, but if the overall accuracy of its navigation cannot be guaranteed, the vehicle is designed to stop. The primary source of positioning and navigation data is a GNSS installation (GPS in this case) with Real Time Kinematic (RTK) capability, which is fed by a pair of antennas on the roof and is accurate to the nearest centimetre. In case GNSS is lost, back-up positioning comes from the Lidar sensors and the stored map, supplemented by odometry sensors that estimate and confirm the vehicle’s position and speed using output from encoders in the wheels and the electric motor while it is moving, and by an inertial measurement unit that measures accelerations and rotations to add further confirmation and precision. Sapet emphasises the importance of mastering all aspects of the software that interprets and integrates the output of these sensors, providing the intelligence to prioritise their information according to the needs of the situation and resolve any potential conflicts. Navya employs teams of software engineers dedicated to cameras and other sensors, and to AI-related aspects such as deep learning. Navya Autonom Cab | Dossier We estimate that 99% of the software in the vehicle is created by Navya, so we can handle any sensors coming onto the market