Construction projects in Florida will soon see driverless trucks around their sites. Pennsylvania based company, Royal Truck & Equipment is fitting the trucks with attenuators to protect motorists as well as workers who are navigating through work zones.
The ATMA (Autonomous TMA Truck) is outfitted with an electro-mechanical system and fully integrated sensor suite that will enable Leader/ Follower capability that allows the ATMA to follow a lead vehicle completely unmanned.
The technology adapted to the roadway construction industry is leveraged from existing systems currently deployed and in use by the US military.
"Any time a driver can be removed from these vehicles in a very dangerous situation, and if the vehicle's struck, there's nobody inside of it to receive the damage or the injuries...that's measuring success," said President of Royal Truck and Equipment, Rob Roy.
Operation of the ATMA will be conducted in a configuration called Leader/Follower to replicate real-world operation.
The configuration will include a human-driven Leader vehicle, followed by an unmanned Follower vehicle (the ATMA). The leader vehicle is a human-driven vehicle that will be outfitted with a NAV Module that is strapped to the roof of the vehicle during testing.
The NAV Module contains a GPS receiver, system computer, digital compass, and a transceiver. It transmits GPS position data called "eCrumbs" back to the Follower vehicle, which then uses the data to follow the exact path and speed of the Leader vehicle at each point along the route.
The NAV Module can be easily unstrapped and removed from one vehicle and installed on another if a different leader vehicle is required.
"Connected and autonomous vehicles in general are viewed as the future of surface transportation, and this technology may be one of the first ways in which it gets commercialised," Gerald Ullman, of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, told the Associated Press.