Feature: Sensor Technology
Autonomous vehicles: A fast- growing market that depends on
inertial motion sensor technology By Meindert Zeeuw, Director of the Automation & Mobility Business Line, Movella Technologies B.V.
is astonishingly difficult to make a fully autonomous vehicle that can operate safely, at mass scale, in urban environments occupied by large numbers of inherently unpredictable humans and other animals. In fact, vehicles are operating fully
Figure. 1: Tesla has pioneered forms of autonomous driving in mass-market passenger cars
D
emand for 24/7 operation, higher efficiency and improved safety are leading to the rapid adoption of autonomous technology for wheeled vehicles used
indoors or outdoors. Tis trend goes largely unnoticed by
the general public. Most ordinary people’s knowledge of autonomous vehicles is limited to passenger cars, such as Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature, or the ‘robotaxis’ operated by Waymo and others in a few American cities (see Figure 1). But the reality is that fully autonomous driving in the cars that consumers use will be a long time coming, if it comes at all. It
autonomously today, but not on public roads, they are in private locations that are largely hidden from public view. Examples include autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) indoors (for example in warehouses), giant trucks in quarries and mines, and logistics vehicles in seaports and airports (see Figure 2). In these ‘closed’ environments, people can be excluded, or quarantined in safe zones, to eliminate the risk of accidents that could cause death or injury. In logistics and haulage, autonomous
vehicles enable a company to reap the benefits of the latest technology for semi- autonomous or autonomous operation, making it more efficient, safer and giving the company a competitive edge against rivals that are slower to adopt new technology. With the move towards autonomy, hardware and soſtware can partly or completely take over from human operators. Unlike humans, autonomous mobile robots:
• Provide continuous and efficient operation • Maintain consistent performance • Enhance security by minimising the risk of workplace accidents and injuries
• Can handle dangerous materials • Reduce mistakes and errors that could lead to defective products In addition, autonomous machines mitigate
an operator’s exposure to worker shortages. Reflecting the value to be gained from the deployment of autonomous vehicles,
Figure 2: Automation offers large efficiency benefits in container terminals. (Image credit: Chuttersnap from Freerange Stock)
recent research has forecast that the market for AMRs will grow at a rapid compound annual growth rate of 15.3 per cent between 2024 and 2030. At the same time, innovations such as the use of drones for last-mile deliveries of parcels and packages will bring autonomy into more public view. In every type of autonomous vehicle, an
inertial measurement unit (IMU), a type of 3D motion sensor, plays a crucial function. Its role is somewhat similar to the organs of balance in the inner ear, called the ‘vestibular system’. Tis article describes the key features which have made the IMU such a crucial enabler of autonomous vehicles.
Falling cost of advanced technology paves way for growth of autonomous vehicles Tere has always been a case for the economic benefits of autonomous vehicles, but in the past, the cost of it oſten outweighed the value of these benefits. In this decade, that balance has shiſted decisively. Tis is partly a long-term feature of the
semiconductor industry. Te IC’s sensors, power converters, motor controllers and so on, in autonomous vehicles, continually improve their performance, reduce power consumption and fall in price, thanks to the magic of Moore’s Law. But the big difference now is the development
of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, the soſtware which enables a machine to see, hear, analyse and respond intelligently to its environment. Tanks to the recent proliferation of graphics processing units and AI data centres, and the widespread availability of huge training datasets for functions such as object recognition, it is cheaper than it has ever been to develop effective autonomous motion algorithms. Te fall in the cost of technology explains
the forecast of fast growth in the market for AMRs, which is very likely to be mirrored in
14 February 2025
www.electronicsworld.co.uk
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