As a Boundary Spanner of Technology Collaboration, we integrate every key modules to produce an autonomous vehicle. We coordinate component suppliers and develop software (driving brain) for the autonomous vehicle, which entails

      a)   Automated vehicle platform – it includes technologies that enable vehicles to make autonomous decisions – perception, analysis and decision; technologies in the automated parts of the vehicle – vehicle handling; and technologies in the computing.

      b)   Smart environment – it comprises technologies that enable autonomous vehicle to interact with each other and their surroundings; in vehicle connectivity and related communication infrastructure and in traffic management, vehicle identification, automated parking.

What is Level 4 vehicle autonomy?

      a)   The Society of Automotive Engineers defines 6 levels of driving automation, ranging from L0 (fully manual) to L5 (fully autonomous). These levels have been adopted by the US Department of Transportation.

      b)   L4 – High Driving Automation: L4 vehicles have “environmental detection” capabilities and can make informed decisions themselves, such as driving past a stationary object. L4 cars do not require human interaction in most circumstances. However, a human still has the option to manually override. L4 vehicles can operate in self-driving mode. But until legislation and infrastructure evolves, they can only do so in a limited area, like private resident area, industrial zone, large warehouses.

PTN is now continuing R&D to advance PTN-L4 driving brain.

Core technology of the PTN L4 Brain – vision guidance supplemented with sonar

Vision technology allows vehicles to build a 3-D map through a series of images taken when an operator tours the vehicle through the environment – so-called mapping the route. The more times the touring conducted, the higher is the accuracy of the route. Once a map is created, the vehicle installed with the PTN L4 Brain is ready to go to work. In our case, the first commercial project is the driverless street sweeping car. The self-driving street sweeping car follows safety rules of the environment and can easily integrate with other operations. When workflow changes, the PTN L4 Brain is flexible to any adjustments required. The reliability, stability and accuracy of the vision guidance are further enhanced by equipping sonar on the vehicle.

Capabilities / Functionalities of the PTN L4 Brain

The PTN L4 Brain can fit onto any electric vehicle with drive-by-wire chassis. It can direct the vehicle to: (a) complete a point-to-point navigation automatically；(b) to run on roads with kerbs；(c) stop and bypass when encountering obstacles – the vehicle will automatically decelerate and stop when encountering obstacles; it will continue to drive after the obstacle leaves; if the obstacle stays motionless there for a long time, the vehicle will start to get round it.

Vehicles fitted with the PTN L4 Brain (and the requisite sensors) can be programmed to:（a） autonomously start, turn and stop – the vehicle can automatically compete the process from standstill to functional speed and back to standstill;（b） drive out of the parking space to start working and back to the parking space；（c） if for some reasons this is not possible, driving out of the parking space can be done manually.