Laser system may let autonomous vehicles see around corners
Autonomous vehicles are getting much better at sensing their surroundings, but even they still need to be able to directly see a hazard to react to it. Now, a Stanford team is developing a laser-based system that may allow driverless cars to see around blind corners, and come to a stop before a child runs out or another car speeds by.
Stanford researchers David Lindell (left) and Matt O’Toole work on a laser-based system that can detect hidden objects around corners (Credit: L.A. Cicero)
In order to image objects beyond direct line-of-sight, the technique involves bouncing laser pulses around a corner, off the desired object and back. A highly sensitive sensor captures the returning photons of light, an algorithm analyzes them and the end result is a fuzzy snapshot of something lurking just out of sight.
In future, the researchers plan to work on speeding up the scans, improving the system's ability to work in daylight and detect moving objects.
The research was published in the journal Nature. The team describes the project in the video below.
Source: Stanford
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Source: New Atlas
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