Uncrewed Systems Technology 049 - April/May 2023

38 O ne of the key tools for autonomous systems is the image sensor. To put that into perspective, about 30,000 people are killed on US freeways each year, and image sensor developers have the ambitious aim of reducing that to 300 using advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS). These automate the braking process using data from image sensors, driving up the volume and quality of the sensors produced, and driving down their cost. These less expensive sensors, coupled with the development of machine learning (ML) algorithms tuned to image sensors for an ADAS, are also being applied to uncrewed system designs. This is a key route to making self- driving vehicles more affordable to build, and is changing the way autonomous vehicle sensor systems are being A growing move to using arrays of less expensive sensors in autonomous systems is opening up new design options. Nick Flaherty explains the implications Safety in numbers April/May 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology