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| en:safeav:as [2025/06/29 17:37] – rczyba | en:safeav:as [2026/04/24 09:26] (current) – raivo.sell |
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| ====== Autonomous Vehicles ====== | ====== Autonomous Systems ====== |
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| <todo @rczyba #rczyba:2025-06-29></todo> | Autonomous systems use sensors (e.g. cameras, radars, ultrasonic sensors) to collect information about the environment. The collected data are processed, and decisions regarding further action are made on their basis. What exactly is autonomy? The autonomy of a system can be defined as its ability to act according to its own goals, norms, internal states, and knowledge, without external human intervention. This means that autonomous systems are not limited to robots or unmanned vehicles. This definition includes any automatic functions that can reduce the level of workload or support the person driving the vehicle. |
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| Autonomous vehicles, also known as self-driving vehicles, are platforms that can move and make decisions without direct human intervention. They use advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, sensors, cameras, and navigation systems to analyze their surroundings and make decisions in real time. Autonomy of mobile vehicles means the ability to independently determine their own control signals. In the case of mobile platforms, this primarily involves the ability to plan a route to a destination. In order to make these decisions as correct and optimal as possible, it is crucial to have a good understanding of the environment surrounding the vehicle, which in practice is often unknown and unpredictable. Autonomous vehicles have the potential to increase road safety, reduce traffic jams, and improve the availability of transport for people who cannot drive. In recent years, many companies, including Tesla, Waymo, and Uber, have been investing in the development of these technologies, leading to intensive research and testing on public roads. As technology advances, autonomous vehicles may become more and more common in our daily lives. | Autonomous systems use advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks, Internet of Things, and others to perform tasks independently. Autonomous systems are today's Industry 4.0 and are used in various areas, from robotics, through transport and logistics, to medicine and education. An example would be an autonomous car that makes decisions on its own based on data from sensors, or an autonomous transport vehicle (AGV, or Automated Guided Vehicles) designed to safely and efficiently transport loads in a warehouse, without the need for operator supervision. Another application of autonomous systems are production systems that, based on data from industrial sensors, automatically control production processes, control machines and optimize production. This allows for shortening production times, reducing production costs and increasing product quality. Autonomous systems are also used in transport and logistics, where they enable faster and more efficient delivery of goods. Thanks to the Internet of Things and monitoring systems, every stage of transport can be tracked, from loading to delivery, which allows for better control of the process. Autonomous systems are becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, and their development and application will have an increasing impact on the future. |
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| Unmanned vehicles, both ground, aerial, water and underwater, are versatile structures used in various fields, from monitoring areas to search and rescue operations (SAR). Thanks to the development of a wide range of high-precision sensors and algorithms for estimating movement parameters, unmanned vehicles have the ability to localize, detect objects and avoid obstacles. New technologies are gaining importance, especially in the context of the development of vehicle autonomy. Autonomous navigation of unmanned vehicles is proving to be a significant challenge. This is a complex and dynamically developing area of technology that has the potential to revolutionize many industries and applications. | |
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| | Autonomous systems operate in fundamentally different physical environments across ground, marine, airborne, and space domains, and these environmental differences strongly influence system design, sensing, safety, and operational architecture. Ground systems operate in highly structured but unpredictable environments with dense obstacles, human interaction, and high-bandwidth connectivity, requiring real-time perception, fast reaction times, and robust human safety assurance. Marine systems operate in less structured but slower-moving three-dimensional environments with fewer obstacles, limited connectivity, and strong environmental disturbances such as waves, currents, and corrosion, placing greater emphasis on long-duration reliability, navigation robustness, and remote supervision. Airborne systems operate in three-dimensional, safety-critical environments governed by strict airspace control, requiring extremely high reliability, precise navigation, fault tolerance, and formal certification due to the severe consequences of failure. Space systems operate in the most extreme and isolated environment, characterized by radiation exposure, vacuum, extreme temperature variation, and long communication delays, making real-time human intervention impossible and requiring systems to be highly autonomous, fault-tolerant, and capable of operating independently for extended periods. As a result, autonomy architectures, safety requirements, sensing modalities, and verification approaches vary significantly across these domains, even though they share common underlying principles of perception, decision-making, and control. |
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| <WRAP excludefrompdf> | Overall, autonomy is a transformational technology which will drive economic processes which will transform society. In order to be effective, autonomy must integrate with the critical elements of society, and the rest of this chapter will discuss these in more detail. |
| Follow those subchapters for more content: | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:as]] | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:uas]] | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:challenges]] | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:autolevels]] | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:frameworks]] | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:vvintro]] | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:vreq]] | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:automanual]] | |
| * [[en:safeav:as:cybersec]] | |
| </WRAP> | |
