Autoblog

As the use of electric motors in motor vehicles converges with other technologies such as drive-by-wire, stability control, and active suspension, eventually a major paradigm shift in automotive architecture may be required. In preparation for that moment, Siemens VDO is working on something that it calls eCorner, which is a convergence of several technologies into the wheel and hub assembly.

While the centerpiece of the concept is an electric drive motor that's integrated into the hub (clearly intended for use with a fuel cell or series hybrid powertrain), other interesting technologies include an active suspension system and Siemens VDO's electronic wedge brake (EWB) brake-by-wire system. The whole assembly is kept pointed in the correct direction by a steer-by-wire system. Fitting the system at all four corners of a vehicle would enable some rather interesting vehicle dynamics, with the angle of each road wheel and the amount of power applied to each motor being continuously varied to keep the car pointed where the driver intends it to go.

While each of these technologies by themselves aren't necessarily novel, it's certainly interesting to see them bundled as one package. Now, someone just has to take the big leap and put into production a vehicle that uses all this technology.

[Source: Siemens; a hat tip to reader Dan Mohr]

We had the pleasure of catching Dr. Sebastian Thrun's keynote presentation at the 2006 Sensors Expo on Tuesday, where he spoke to the audience about his experience leading Stanford's DARPA Challenge entry to victory last year and how the project's success may affect the way we drive in the not-so-distant future.

The technical content of "Stanley" is fascinating, of course. Due to the relative inaccuracy of GPS (2 meters of error doesn't cut it on a 2.5-meter-wide mountain pass), a variety of sensors were used for environmental recognition, allowing the vehicle to discern "good" terrain from non-drivable areas. A array of five lasers scan the area in front of the vehicle for obstacles, and their downward trajectory combines with the forward movement of the vehicle to allow for the return of 3D data. Unfortunately, the 20 meter range of the lasers and the 70 Hz scan rate limits the maximum practical speed of the vehicle to 35 MPH or so when relying solely on this navigational device.

To allow the faster travel speeds thought necessary to secure a victory, an optical camera was implemented to learn from the laser system how drivable terrain appears, eventually allowing the vehicle to see much further down the intended path and thus facilitating higher speeds. Doing so isn't as easy as it may seem - color can't be used due to the wide variety in coloration of drivable surfaces (roads may be brown, black, red, tan, or any number of other shades), and texture detection is nearly worthless as Thrun noted that the sky is smoothly textured but yet not a practical path. Radar is also used to provide ranging information.

[Click through for much more on this vehicle and the future of (not) driving...]