Posts tagged ByWire XGV
TORC to Showcase Blind-Driver Vehicle at AUVSI Conference
BLACKSBURG, Va. (August 9, 2011) – TORC, a leading developer of robotic technologies for unmanned and autonomous vehicles, will showcase the NFB Blind Driver Challenge® blind-drivable vehicle at AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems North America conference.
The outfitted Ford Escape, which uses TORC’s ByWire XGV™ robotic research platform and other intelligent vehicle technologies from its Robotic Building Blocks product line, will be on display at TORC’s Booth 1133 Aug. 16-19 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
The vehicle was driven by blind person at the Daytona International Speedway as part of the National Federation of the Blind’s Blind Driver Challenge. The blind driver was able to negotiate hairpin turns while avoiding obstacles ranging from cones and barrels to other moving traffic.
For unmanned systems researchers, developers and integrators, the ByWire XGV™ provides an integration-ready drive-by-wire controlled ground vehicle platform with integrated safety and an onboard power management system, enabling developers to stay focused on developing advanced robotic technology.
In addition, TORC’s leadership team is participating on expert panels during the AUVSI conference:
• CEO Michael Fleming will discuss TORC’s experience in a panel called “Driverless Cars, From Conception to Reality.” Fleming will weigh in on what it takes to make driverless cars a reality, including technological advancements being made today and future plans to bring this exciting revolution in transportation to life.
• Andrew Culhane, Business Development Manager for TORC, is presenting a technical session titled “Repurposing of Unmanned Ground Vehicle Perception Technologies to Enable Blind Drivers to Hit the Road.” He will be joined by Dr. Dennis Hong, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, to discuss his research on non-visual interfaces that can provide a blind person with the necessary information to independently operate an automobile.
ABOUT TORC
TORC enables engineers to rapidly integrate robotic systems through a suite of modular, customizable products. TORC’s Robotic Building Blocks product line is used by leading academic, commercial and government organizations to shorten the development process, lower costs and mitigate risks. These products have been used on more than 100 mobile robots ranging from 15 pounds to 15 tons. TORC provides solutions for drive-by-wire conversion, emergency stop, power management, autonomous navigation and operator control. For more information, visit http://www.torcrobotics.com.
Blind Driver Challenge Gets Mainstream Media Coverage
The NFB Blind Driver Challenge was recently a feature story on both the TODAY show and MotorWeek. Both segments cover the story from a different angle, with MotorWeek providing a more in-depth look into background of, and technology used in, the Challenge. The TODAY clip is slightly more entertaining, as NBC’s anchor Jenna Wolfe gets “SafeStopped” (new verb for getting emergency stopped with the TORC SafeStop) a few times and maxes out at 4 mph!
Visit the ByWire XGV product page to learn more about the research vehicle (modified Ford Escape Hybrid) used in developing the Blind Drive Challenge vehicles.
MotorWeek episode
TODAY Show segment
NFB Blind Driver Challenge Team Chooses TORC’s ByWire XGV as Base Research Platform
Next Generation of Blind-Drivable Vehicles Using TORC Robotic Building Blocks Product Line
BLACKSBURG, VA (October 13, 2010) – TORC, a leading provider of modular unmanned vehicle technologies, is pleased to announce its products are being used in developing the next generation of NFB Blind Driver Challenge vehicles. The ByWire XGV vehicle, driven by a blind driver, will be demonstrated during the 2011 Rolex 24 at the Daytona International Speedway.
Mark Riccobono, Executive Director of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Jernigan Institute, says, “The National Federation of the Blind issued our Blind Driver Challenge to encourage partnerships with universities and technology manufacturers to develop nonvisual interface technologies that convey essential information about the driving environment to a blind driver in real-time. Having nonvisual access to this information will empower the blind driver to use his/her capacity to safely and independently operate an automobile. On January 29, as part of the pre-race activities of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the resulting evolution of nonvisual driving interface technologies will be demonstrated using a Ford Escape that has been converted to the next generation blind-driver vehicle. A blind driver will independently operate the vehicle, in front of tens of thousands of spectators, to demonstrate that a blind person can safely perform various driving functions. This monumental milestone that brings us ever closer to the development of a road-ready vehicle for the blind is a direct result of the partnership between the National Federation of the Blind, Virginia Tech, and TORC.”
The NFB Blind Driver Challenge was taken on by Dr. Dennis Hong and the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at Virginia Tech, which successfully demonstrated a prototype blind-drivable dune buggy in May of 2009. In June 2010, RoMeLa partnered with TORC to develop the next generation of NFB Blind Driver Challenge vehicles. New and improved versions of RoMeLa’s nonvisual interfaces will be integrated into a ByWire XGV; TORC’s modified Ford Escape Hybrid with its ByWire drive-by-wire conversion modules, SafeStop wireless emergency stop system and PowerHub power distribution modules. The ByWire XGV, which is based around TORC’s success in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, provides a thoroughly tested vehicle configuration from which the team can add more advanced technologies.
“The ByWire XGV base vehicle has enabled the RoMeLa team to focus on the research and development of nonvisual interfaces for the blind. We have chosen the ByWire XGV for its performance, ease of integration with our system, and most importantly, for its reliability as safety is most important. By leveraging TORC’s commercial-off-the-shelf products, our team of graduate and undergraduate students will enable the blind to drive at the 2011 Rolex 24 and beyond,” said Dr. Dennis Hong, Director of RoMeLa.
While many autonomous vehicle technologies will be used, the goal is not to develop an autonomous vehicle to drive the blind, but rather a vehicle that enables a blind person to drive. The sensing and perception data that would normally be used to autonomously carry out the appropriate driving behaviors will instead be passed to the blind driver through several nonvisual interfaces. The blind driver can then reason about the environment, make control decisions, and directly execute these decisions from behind the wheel. The novel interfaces being developed at RoMeLa include DriveGrip, a pair of vibrating gloves that relay steering information, SpeedStrip, a vibration-based device that relays speed information, and AirPix, a device that uses compressed airflow patterns to create tactile images.
For more information about the NFB Blind Driver Challenge visit www.blinddriverchallenge.org and to learn more about RoMeLa visit www.romela.org.
About TORC
TORC enables engineers to rapidly integrate robotic systems through a suite of modular, customizable products. TORC’s Robotic Building Blocks product line is used by leading academic, commercial and government organizations to shorten the development process, lower costs and mitigate risks. These products have been used on over a hundred mobile robots ranging from 15 pounds to 15 tons. TORC provides solutions for drive-by-wire conversion, emergency stop, power management, autonomous navigation and operator control. The ByWire XGV, a drive-by-wire Hybrid Escape with integrated SafeStop safety and PowerHub distribution systems, provides an integration-ready base platform for autonomous system development. For more information, visit www.torctech.com.
TORC, Robotic Building Blocks, ByWire XGV, SafeStop, and PowerHub are trademarks of TORC.
Additional Information on the NFB Blind Driver Challenge
TORC on Display at the Robotics Summit Virtual Conference
BLACKSBURG, Va. (June 14, 2010) – TORC, a leading provider of robotic systems for autonomous vehicles, will be exhibiting at the Robotics Summit Virtual Conference on June 16. TORC’s exhibit focuses on its Robotic Building Block products and the ByWire XGV, which provides an integration-ready, drive-by-wire controlled ground robotics platform with tightly integrated safety and onboard power management systems. Driven by real-world applications and experiences such as the DARPA Urban Challenge, the design of the ByWire XGV focuses on reliability, safety, cost-effectiveness, and performance.
The Robotics Summit Virtual Conference is a unique, online event that brings together industry leaders for a full day of keynote presentations, online discussions, networking and a virtual exhibit hall where companies showcase their latest robotic technologies.
Be sure to visit the TORC exhibit and participate in a brief survey for your chance to win a free FLIP camcorder. If you are not already registered for the event, attendance is free at bit.ly/roboticsevent.
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TORC Provides Unmanned Industry with Integration-Ready Robotic Ground Vehicle
ByWire XGV™ Experimental Ground Vehicle Platform Provides Jump Start for Autonomous Research and Development
BLACKSBURG, VA (Dec. 4, 2009) – TORC Technologies, a leading developer of robotic technologies for unmanned and autonomous vehicles, is offering unmanned systems researchers, developers and integrators in the ground vehicle market a faster way to develop and test new technologies.
TORC’s ByWire XGV™ is a JAUS interoperable, drive-by-wire controlled ground vehicle platform which utilizes the Ford Escape Hybrid as the base vehicle. The XGV comes with built-in safety components and an optional onboard power management system. This off-the-shelf, integration-ready platform has been purchased by various universities and robotics companies to have on hand for rapid integration and testing of their autonomous technologies. The platform design is based on TORC’s success as a finalist in the DARPA Urban Challenge and has been proven during thousands of hours of development, testing and operation.
ByWire XGV makes it possible to bypass the drive-by-wire conversion and jump right into the integration phase of more advanced unmanned technologies. By allowing engineering teams to remain focused on higher level technology development, the XGV eliminates the need to spend time, money and resource commitments reinventing an already proven system.
“To develop the next level of unmanned ground vehicle technologies, researchers need a reliable, cost-effective drive-by-wire platform from which they can build upon,” says Andrew Culhane, TORC’s Business Development Manager. “In the full-sized unmanned ground vehicle market this is especially important since large amounts of time and money can be sunk into developing an in-house solution that may be pulling resources away from working on the core technology under development.
“The ByWire XGV is a direct solution to the ‘base platform problem’ experienced by so many in the unmanned systems community. As a rapid go-to-market platform with a great deal of flexibility in its application, the XGV is ready to integrate higher level technologies.”
ByWire XGV focuses on reliability, safety, cost-effectiveness and performance. The conversion package includes three core areas: drive-by-wire (ability for a computer to perform both closed-loop and open-loop control of the vehicle), safety (a fail-safe emergency stop system) and power (set of flexible options for supplying power to any auxiliary equipment).
ByWire XGV utilizes the hybrid Escape’s proven vehicle technologies, tapping into electronic controls, available battery power, and all wheel drive for on-road/off-road ruggedness and flexibility of application. Controlled through a unified Ethernet interface, the drive-by-wire conversion is seamlessly integrated with the vehicle’s factory electronics, providing electronic control of the steering, throttle, shifter, braking and signals. In addition, information such as vehicle speed, warnings and errors can be monitored.
The XGV includes an integrated SafeStop™, TORC’s wireless emergency stop system, providing temporary pause and emergency shutdown functionality. Manual stop buttons are mounted inside and outside of the vehicle for additional safety. A key benefit of the XGV is the availability of onboard DC and AC power, eliminating the need for adding additional power sources to the system. The optional PowerHub™ conditioning and distribution modules allow for use of up to 6 kW of managed power, which is configurable over Ethernet through a web browser.
“The demand for unmanned ground vehicles capable of removing humans from the dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs of the world continually increases as the effectiveness of unmanned systems improve,” Culhane says. “To meet this growing demand, research and development efforts have increased to build up critical technology.”
Examples of such critical areas include sensor range and effectiveness, motion planning techniques in dynamic and unpredictable environments, behavioral architectures, and unobtrusive yet powerful human-computer interfaces. Other important challenges facing unmanned system developers include lowering cost while improving reliability and robustness.
“Achieving all these goals is necessary to boost adoption rates of unmanned vehicles by government and commercial markets,” Culhane says. “Too often these goals are not achieved, however, due to the unavailability of a reliable, cost-effective, and flexible base platform. Too much time and money is put into solving a problem that is not associated with the actual technology under development. The XGV meets this need for the unmanned ground vehicle community.”
To learn more about ByWireXGV, including video demonstrations, please visit www.ByWireXGV.com.
ABOUT TORC TECHNOLOGIES
TORC is a leading robotics engineering and product development company focusing on unmanned and autonomous vehicle systems. The company commercializes intelligent robotic technologies into modular, interoperable, off-the-shelf products that enable customers to rapidly integrate and deploy unmanned solutions. To learn more, visit www.torctech.com.