Over the past year or so, crashes by vehicles employing driverless technology from both Tesla and Google have made headlines for obvious reasons. And while few debate the merit of this technology, it does offer support for those who fear an overabundance of robots could negatively impact job availability.
However, even those who shutter at the prospects of a robotic revolution have to agree that substituting a computer for a human driver in a vehicle that is essentially a large, yellow crash barrier for inattentive drivers, could be a good thing.
That’s the goal of a Colorado Department of Technology project that fuses a truck from Royal Truck and autonomous operations technology from drone and missile builder Kratos Defense.
This robotruck trails road construction crews as they fill potholes, apply lane stripes or clear debris from roadways. These vehicles are already in use and utilize a metal crumple zone bumper designed to absorb the impact of an errant car before it can enter the work zone.
The only difference is that now one less human is exposed to the 21,000+ work zone crashes that produced 171 fatalities on Colorado roads between 2000 and 2014. According to the Federal Highway Administration, there’s a work zone crash every five minutes in the U.S., which equates to 70 injuries every day.
Kratos developed the computer controls for the steering and pedals through actuators and cables that run under the floor and around the steering column. The truck follows a human-driven vehicle that wirelessly transmits its position, speed, and heading to the robotruck, which uses radar to avoid obstacles.
So, unlike a number of LiDAR-driven autonomous navigation systems, this robotruck doesn’t rely on cameras transmitting information on road signs or markings in order to move through traffic. It simply follows the leader.
Kratos feels this technology could also have applications that include tug boats, road sweepers, and even garbage trucks.
