MechChem Africa June 2018

⎪ Back page ⎪

Finnish robot car leaps towards automatic driving whichconditionstheLiDARradar,which ‘sees’ in the visible and near infrared ranges of the spectrum, even enables the robot car to see people better.

V TT’s robot car, Marilyn, sees better thanhumans in foggy, andeven snowy, conditions, and can now navigate without stopping – including in bad weather. It can also see a human through fog and avoid accidents automatically. This is enabledby the LiDAR mounted on the car’s roof, which can see wavelengths that are beyond the human senses. The evolution of this technology rep- resents a big step towards a safe automated vehicle that is not even hindered by foggy conditions. For the first time, robot cars from dif- ferent manufacturers demonstrated their driving scenarios in the same arena at the RobustSENSE event in Ulm, Germany, where Marilyn was on showwith six other robots in mid-May this year. The latest additions to Marilyn include optical component wavelengths via the new 1 550 nm LiDAR and additional intelligence for its software, which improves sensor capa- bilities. Furthermore, softwaremodules have been built in for the filtering of point clouds and the assessment of scanner reliability. This is to ensure the vehicle’s ability to function, including in fog and powdery snow, under

Industry diary Juy 2018 SAIMM Introduction to Process Engineering School 2018 - Volume 1 30-31 July 2018 Birchwood Hotel, Boksburg, South Africa Yolanda Ndimande, Conference Co-ordinator The project is a joint effort of Daimler AG, AVL, Bosch, Centro Ricerche Fiat, EICT GmbH, Fico Mirrors SA, Fraunhofer FOKUS, FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik, Modulight, Inc, Oplatek Group Oy, SICK AG, University of Ulm and VTT www.robustsense.eu/final-event.html driving scenarios of his protegé. This is probably the first time in Europe that six robot cars were driven through their different scenarios in the same campus area, in which pedestrians are also moving around. Other cars negotiated crossroads automatically, engaging in route planning, andchangingbetweenmanualandautomated mode. Marilyn, on the other hand, profiled the ‘see through’ type of scenario, by driving through fog, which even the observer cannot see through. The LiDAR and sensor fusion technology of VTT Technical ResearchCentre of Finland, SICK, Oplatek andModulight are co-creators of Marilyn.

“Although Marilyn’s vision is limited to roughly 30 m in thick fog, the new LiDAR type allows the car to be driven slowly rather than having to stop completely,” says project manager, Matti Kutila of VTT’s RobotCar Crew team. The car also has traditional automotive radars and LiDAR, but their detection of non- metallic obstacles and resolution is limited, particularlywhen trying to recognise shapes. “Marilyn can also combine radar and LiDAR technologies by optimising the best aspects of the different sensors. This makes the automatic vehicle safer than a car driven by a person – although there are still a lot of obstacles in its development path, a major leap has been taken in the right direction,” Kutila emphasises. “We still have a longway to go on the jour- ney towards 24/7 automated driving, but we are nowmuch closer to achieving our dream. If we think of this as a 42 km marathon, we are now perhaps 10 km closer to our goal,” he comments.

More and more scenarios (such as cities, main roads, snow, exit ramps), which robot cars can al- ready manage, have been added. At theRobustSENSEevent,Marilyn drove through a bankof fog created in a tent, whichwas so thick that the passengers could not see through it. After passing through the cham- ber, the car automatically avoided an obstacle in front, in this case a human dummy. Among Marilyn’s sensors, the 905nmLiDARs cannot seethroughmist–thenew1550nm LiDAR is the only sensor based on which a decision to swerve can be made,” says Kutila, describing the

Tel: +27 11 834-1273/7 yolanda@saimm.co.za http://www.saimm.co.za

POWER-GEN, DistribuTECH Africa 2018 17-19 July 2018 Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa Tel: + 27 (0) 869 9153

leigh@tradeprojects.co.za www.powergenafrica.com

The latest additions to Marilyn include optical component wavelengths via 1 550 nm LiDAR.

Air & Vacuum Technologies....................................................33 Atlas Copco...................................................................................36 Bonfiglioli.................................................................................... IBC Engen ..............................................................................................35 EnviroServ................................................................................ OFC Flexicon......................................................................................OBC Instrotech.......................................................................................21 Integrated Pump Rental...........................................................15 Integrated Pump Technology.................................................25 Mather+Platt................................................................................14 Omron.............................................................................................19 Rose Foundation........................................................................... 3 RTS Africa Engineering.............................................................37 SKF..................................................................................................IFC Skyriders........................................................................................27 Verder Pumps SA........................................................................13 Weir Minerals...............................................................................18 WIKA Instruments.....................................................................29 Zest Weg Group..........................................................................39 Index to advertisers

Oil & Gas Africa 2018 21-23 August 2018, Cape Town, South Africa

Oil and Gas Africa is an event dedicated to the fast-growing oil and gas industry in Africa enjoying the support and pa- tronage of the South African Oil and Gas Alliance (SAOGA). Hosted by the Cape Town International Convention Centre, this event is an important information and communication platform for the industry, bringing together leading suppliers from different parts of the continent with pro- spectivebusinesspartnerstoformalliances

with their counterparts in industry. Oil andGas Africa is still the largest and only engineering supply chain exhibition in Africa. The exhibition is complemented by a conference featuring the latest technolo- gies dominating the oil and gas industry of today. The focus is on the increased sus- tainable extraction of oil and gas and the organisers demonstrate howgovernments acrossAfricaareencouragingforeigninves- tors to meet energy needs.

40 ¦ MechChem Africa • June 2018