by Yan L, 1st Year, Junior Technology as a whole has changed our society in ways that have replaced the past inefficient ways of doing things. Whether that is from automation in businesses to our smartphones, it is hard to deny that technology has changed the way of accomplishing most tasks. No topic illustrates this point more than the introduction of automated vehicles, which are also known as self-driving cars. Several years ago, people would have laughed at the prospect of the creation of “cars that drive by themselves”, however, this is slowly becoming a reality, through companies like Tesla, Ford, Audi, and more. The main technology used for these self-driving cars is vision technology, and this technology is also almost always used with top FRC teams around the globe. The typical norm for operating a vehicle on the road is by human interaction using a steering wheel. However, with the introduction of automated vehicles, all driving operations are done by a computer inside the vehicle. Autopilot on a Tesla car works by using cameras and sensors similar to those used for vision programming in FRC, that take in information from the outside environment and transmit that information to a computer inside the car. In FRC, we used cameras and a limelight sensor in order to detect certain objects, based on properties such as reflection, contours, edges, etc. The detected objects are shown in white and the code takes that image, and calculates the position and distance from the object. That information is then processed through an algorithm to make the turret on our FRC Robot, Pyxis, track the target. Similar to how we used vision for FRC, the computer on the Tesla car interprets the information detected from the cameras and sensors and acts on it in a matter of milliseconds, which according to Tesla will “...provide drivers with an awareness of their surroundings that a driver alone would not otherwise have.” This type of technology has many implications in regard to safety and efficiency. If any dangerous scenario happens on the road, the computer can quickly compute and tell the car what to perform in a matter of milliseconds before catastrophe strikes. With this technology, you could reduce the annual 1.2 million traffic fatalities to a much lower number. In regards to FRC and robotics, this technology increases efficiency and decreases the complexity in doing tasks in autonomous and tele-operated.. There are many other technological innovations in development currently that will revolutionize the way we see or do things, and automated vehicles are one of the first steps into this revolution. With these advancements coming soon into the future, more lives can be saved and tasks can be accomplished in a shorter amount of time. Although some people challenge the idea of future technological developments related to automation, ultimately it is hard to deny that without the technology we have today, basic tasks that we take for granted today would be much more tedious. In the case of vision programming and object detection, it would be extremely jarring to complete a handful of tasks on a time limit without it during an FRC competition. Technology is a massive part of changing our future, and its influence will continue to prosper for centuries.
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AuthorThe CSP Blog is written by members of the CSP Media team, with guest blogs by alumni and other guests. Archives
March 2022
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