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44 Insight | UGVs aim eventually to install autonomous capabilities on hybrid and electric- powered buses as well,” says Jim Hutchinson, CEO of Fusion Processing. While electric powertrains are mechanically simpler and more generally favoured for installing autonomy sensors and computers, Fusion Processing is practised in working with internal combustion powertrains, as in the Enviro200. “The latter requires a little more work, but it’s not the bulk of the work,” Hutchinson explains. “Before installing our systems, we first look at the operating environment, then work out the optimum set-up for the sensors, and spec them. That will dictate how we configure the control system. “Ultimately, we have a very flexible system, with cameras, radar, Lidars and ultrasonics. There are certain efficiencies to be gained when you spec a system. If you know, for example, that a certain part of the functionality is not required, we can adjust the system to apply sensor and processing power elsewhere.” Crucial elements of the operating environment to be investigated will include speeds, the complexity of the junctions that will have to be navigated, as well as the transport infrastructure and the support to be given by it. “We’ll survey the routes for these details, but we also have third-party experts who will be looking at various aspects and safety concerns, and helping us to ensure they are addressed,” Hutchinson notes. Elsewhere in autonomous transport, a self-driving Chrysler Pacifica operated by developer Waymo successfully identified and obeyed the hand signals of a police officer, having initially stopped at a broken traffic light where the officer was directing traffic, rather than proceeding. Waymo’s sensor architecture for autonomous driving typically uses radar at the four corners of its test vehicles, as well as Lidar and optical sensors on the roof, along with additional Lidars at the front, rear, and front corners of its cars. In December 2018 the Alphabet subsidiary opened a trial of its self-driving taxis to a few hundred screened test riders in a geo-fenced 100 sq mile area in Phoenix, Arizona. This Early Rider Program is currently ongoing. And with an eye on mass transport of goods rather than people, Locomation – a spin-out of Carnie Mellon University in the US – is to begin test trials of its autonomous truck platooning technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where it is headquartered. Typically, trucks require a driver in each vehicle, but the Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill in October 2018 allowing platooning (a form of RF comms-based ‘follow me’ functionality) of up to three semi-trailer trucks, buses or military vehicles on certain highways and interstate lines beginning this April. With Locomation’s ‘autonomous relay conveying’ technology, trucks would be manually driven until they reach a highway where the wireless link is permitted. At that point the lead driver would navigate both trucks, and the second driver would be ‘off-duty’. April/May 2019 | Unmanned Systems Technology Waymo’s autonomous taxi Early Rider Program is ongoing, having started in Phoenix, Arizona in December 2018