Researchers demonstrate pavement markers that transmit lane information to self-driving cars
On a recent morning, a self-driving car navigated a curvy Chattanooga street by ālisteningā to the roadās reflective lane markers. 91°µĶų and Western Michigan University researchers demonstrated the technology to officials with the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County, Tennessee.
The research team is setting the stage to commercialize the innovation, which equips raised pavement markers with microchips to transmit information about the shape of the road ā even when cameras are unreliable because of weather conditions such as fog or snow. The technology also helps reduce navigational power consumption so electric vehicles can travel farther before recharging.
Researchers designed an algorithm that uses radio frequency sensing to schedule transmissions from the pavement markers to passing cars. āNow a car can receive data from 50 marker locations in a single signal snapshot,ā said ORNLās lead researcher, Ali Riza Ekti.
A study found at transmitting lane information on a variety of routes compared to a commercial vision processing system, which detected lanes on steep curves only 7% of the time.
