NEWS & EVENTS
LATEST NEWS FROM AURRIGO
AURIGO
Autonomous pods SWARM together like bees
in world first demonstration
Autonomous pods born in Coventry are
now able to swarm together in a world
first, thanks to research by WMG at the
University of Warwick in partnership with
Aurrigo and Milton Keynes council.
With the concept of driverless pods now
more realistic than futuristic, the vehicles
are one step closer to being put to use, as
they can now help each other to drive and
navigate through pedestrian areas around
people.
The concept of Swarming pods was well
received by the public, with the ultimate
idea of using an app to hail a pod, or a
platoon of pods if travelling in a group,
seen as the next evolution of personal and
public transport.
The pods are designed for pedestrian
areas and shared spaces, so public
transport can be used on highways and
the pods can be used as a “first and last
mile service”.
Researchers at WMG integrated Swarm
intelligence into the Pods by implementing
swarming skills typically used by birds and
insects.
The success of ‘swarming’ means that
Pods can now schedule themselves to
form a ‘platoon’, following each other
when possible, to minimise the number
of individual vehicle movements and the
need for a supervisor per pod. In the
future, it’s expected that a supervisor
can watch several pods and report any
unexpected behaviour.
The technology also enables the Pods,
working within a fleet, to automatically
optimise their behaviour to meet future
passenger demand by distributing
themselves within a city to the areas where
they will most likely be requested.
Dr Roger Woodman, associate Professor
in human factors at WMG at the University
of Warwick, said: “The SWARM algorithm
has been tested and is proven to be
With the concept of
driverless pods now more
realistic than futuristic,
the vehicles are one step
closer to being put to use.
effective and reliable. The ability to make
pods ‘swarm’ together like a group of bees
or birds, means they can coordinate with
each other, bringing them one step closer
to our streets.”
Simon Brewerton, Chief Technology Officer
at Aurrigo, continued: “The collaborative
SWARM algorithms have been developed
to enable our autonomous vehicles to
optimise their own trip schedules, so they
deliver the optimum efficiency from a fleet
of vehicles.
“The swarming technology is very exciting
and has the potential to operate large
fleets of remotely supervised autonomous
vehicles in a safe and scalable way.
Interest in this will be huge.”
For further information, please visit www.aurrigo.com or follow @aurrigotech on twitter
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PECM Issue 43