astronomy

VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge

VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge rather than just read about it. In short: VIAC, the VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge, is the challenge conceived by VisLab as an extreme test of autonomous vehicles. It ran from July 20, 2010 to October 28, 2010, involving four driverless vehicles driving with virtually no human intervention on an almost 16,000 kilometres (9,900 mi) trip from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China.

Key takeaways

VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

VIAC, the VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge, is the challenge conceived by VisLab as an extreme test of autonomous vehicles. It ran from July 20, 2010 to October 28, 2010, involving four driverless vehicles driving with virtually no human intervention on an almost 16,000 kilometres (9,900 mi) trip from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China.

Overview The 2010 World Expo's theme was “better cities, better life”; therefore issues related to sustainable mobility were central to the Expo and this challenge of reaching Shanghai with driverless vehicles provided a clear demonstration of future vehicles; it is considered one of the main milestones in Robotics. VisLab, thanks to a project partially funded by ERC -the European Research Council- showed that one day it will be possible to move goods between two continents with non-polluting vehicles powered by green energy and with virtually no human intervention. Goods were packed in Parma and taken to Shanghai on driverless vehicles for the first time in history.

The idea The aim was to test and stress the current technology in a unique event: non-polluting and non-oil based autonomous vehicles in real traffic conditions on an extreme journey between two continents, the final outcome being a huge dataset with a very large variety of situations to be further used to refine the onboard perception system.

Technical details The trip traversed remote areas in Russia, Kazakhstan, and China, for which no map was available; due to the length of the trip it was also impossible to check and test the route in advance. Therefore, VisLab defined the following behavior. The first vehicle drove autonomously in selected sections of the trip, conducting experimental tests on sensing, decision, and control subsystems, and continuously collecting data. Human interventions were needed on a regular basis to define the route and intervene in critical situations. The second vehicle automatically followed the route defined by the leader vehicle by following it either visually or thanks to GPS waypoints sent by the leader vehicle, therefore requiring no human intervention (100% autonomous). This is regarded as a readily exploitable vehicle, able to move on predefined routes. During the trip, demonstrations were scheduled in specific hot spots, showing autonomous vehicles following given routes, negotiating traffic, avoiding obstacles, and stopping when required. The first demonstration was held in Rome at the EUR district on October 29, 2009, when Rome's Major, Gianni Alemanno, officially presented the VIAC challenge. The last demonstration was given exactly one year later, on Oct 28, 2010, in Shanghai, China, during a parade at the World Expo, organized by the European Pavilion. Although the vehicles were electric and had solar panels on the roof, propulsion was not powered by the solar panels but by the original vehicle's batteries which were charged at power outlets or, when no power outlet was available, by generators. The solar panels powered the autonomous driving system (sensors, processing engines, actuators, radios, GPS,..).

Worldwide Milestone and Data Analysis The VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge is considered a unique milestone in vehicular robotics, just like the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005 and the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007. The vehicles collected about 50 terabytes of data to be used in the future for further processing off-line.

Organization and Logistics The logistics were managed by Overland Network, which provided 4 RVs (motor homes) and 3 additional trucks as a support. The expedition was therefore formed by 4 autonomous vehicles, 4 RVs, 3 trucks, and occupied about 20 people for three months. A satellite link broadcast live data and video streaming for the whole duration of the trip (except in China) so that everybody on the Internet was able to witness the progress of the experiment.

See also DARPA Grand Challenge DARPA Grand Challenge (2007) VisLab Google driverless car

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge

In research: VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Automotive safety, Automotive technologies, Robotics competitions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge in simple terms?

Why does VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge.