Drone Hitching a Ride

New Drone Can Hitch a Ride on a Moving Car Hitchhiker latches on using trajectory tracking and suction cups    MICHELLE HAMPSON  

A box with a picture of a small teal car in front of a white backdrop, and a drone attached to the box's back

The new Hitchhiker drone developed by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University can land on vertical moving surfaces. SENSEN LIU

JOURNAL WATCH DRONE SURVEYING

This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.

Drones are being used for everything, it seems: surveillance, delivery tasks, search and rescue efforts. But as these handy fliers take on more unique and difficult tasks, they need to be able to land in increasingly challenging scenarios. Now, a newly designed drone called Hitchhiker is able to land not just on inclined surfaces, but inclined surfaces in motion—like the side of a moving car.

Sensen Liu designed Hitchhiker as part of his postdoctoral work at the Lab of Cooperative Intelligence of Unmanned Systems at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Mechanical Engineering. “Our interest stems from the fact that many structures—including buildings, bridges, and ground vehicles—feature inclined surfaces that are difficult for traditional drones to land on,” he explains. “By creating drones with this capability, we can leverage these surfaces as landing sites and expand the possibilities for the use of drone technology.”

Liu’s team is particularly interested in developing drones that can land on the side of moving cars. “The drone would be capable of scouting the surrounding environment while the automobile is in motion, allowing for real-time analysis of the environment,” explains Liu.

Once the drone is done scouting, it could latch onto the side of the car in order to help conserve energy, delaying the time needed before its batteries must be swapped or recharged.

To create such a drone, Liu and colleagues, under the supervision of Wei Dong, an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, developed a trajectory planning algorithm that accounts for the individual thrust of each rotor of the quadcopter. It utilizes a two-stage tracking approach that analyzes both the drone’s position and attitude.  ... ' 

Explaining AI in Context

Not to say I am using the connection with autonomous cars, but am very much into how we explain with AI in all sorts of contexts.    We built some AI systems in our early days that could have used very precise explanatory capabilities, in order to keep its credibility over many maintenance cycles,  but it could only be crudely done at the time.   Here a nice case study in the here and now.  

The Rocky Road Toward Explainable AI (XAI) For AI Autonomous Cars 

The AI systems doing the piloting of autonomous cars will need to provide explanations to curious passengers about the route being undertaken    By Lance Eliot, the AI Trends Insider  

Our lives are filled with explanations. You go to see your primary physician due to a sore shoulder. The doctor tells you to rest your arm and avoid any heavy lifting. In addition, a prescription is given. You immediately wonder why you would need to take medication and also are undoubtedly interested in knowing what the medical diagnosis and overall prognosis are. 

So, you ask for an explanation. 

In a sense, you have just opened a bit of Pandora’s box, at least in regard to the nature of the explanation that you might get. For example, the medical doctor could rattle a lengthy and jargon-filled indication of shoulder anatomy and dive deeply into the chemical properties of the medication that has been prescribed. That’s probably not the explanation you were seeking.   

It used to be that physicians did not expect patients to ask for explanations. Whatever was said by the doctor was considered sacrosanct. The very nerve of asking for an explanation was tantamount to questioning the veracity of a revered medical opinion. Some doctors would gruffly tell you to simply do as they have instructed (no questions permitted) or might utter something rather insipid like your shoulder needs help and this is the best course of action. Period, end of story.   

Nowadays, medical doctors are aware of the need for viable explanations. There is specialized “bedside” training that takes place in medical schools. Hospitals have their own in-house courses. upcoming medical doctors are graded on how they interact with patients. And so on.   

Though that certainly has opened the door toward improved interaction with patients, it does not necessarily completely solve the explanations issue. 

Knowing how to best provide an explanation is both art and science. You need to consider that there is the explainer that will be providing the explanation, and there is a person that will be the recipient of the explanation.    ... '

Car Connectivity and Value Creation

Thoughtful and potentially useful:

" ... The connectivity experience of drivers and passengers will soon be transformed, with the potential for significant value creation. Here is a framework to measure progress.

Framework for Car Connectivity and User Experience

Sent from McKinsey Insights, ... "

"... The connectivity experience of drivers and passengers will soon be transformed, with the potential for significant value creation. Here is a framework to measure progress.

In the automotive sector, as elsewhere in the economy, digital forces are blurring traditional industry boundaries, spurring the formation of new ecosystems, and placing large profit pools up for grabs. Vehicle data, spun off by surging vehicle connectivity, will be critical for generating revenue, reducing costs, and increasing safety and could represent a value pool of up to $750 billion by 2030.

The McKinsey Connected Car Customer Experience (C3X) framework

The value of this data will depend in part on the acceptance of clear-cut standards. A common understanding and shared language will help players across the ecosystem communicate about current and emerging opportunities. It will also make it easier for consumers to compare features and capabilities of different offerings. No such standard exists today for user experience in a connected car, one of the key foundations for data-driven value creation in mobility. As connectivity systems become progressively more complex, understanding the changes underway will become increasingly problematic in the absence of a universal framework. In this article, drawn from years studying this topic, we propose one  .... " 

Car Ballet: Eliminating Traffic Lights with Car Sensors

A somewhat exciting and scary idea out of MIT:
As vehicles become more wirelessly connected, communicating with each other and the infrastructure around them, traffic lights may become an unnecessary impediment in getting from A to B.

Instead of stopping for traffic lights, sensor-laden vehicles would communicate with each other and perform a kind of ballet around each other, according to a new study by MIT.

The study claims this kind of traffic-light-free transportation design, if it ever arrives, could allow twice as much traffic to use existing roads. ....  " 

Networks of Parked Cars Could Save Your Life

Suggesting that parked cars, acting as a network of computing systems and sensors, could play an infrastructure role as part of the Internet of Things.   Why parked?  Apparently cars spend 95% of their time parked, so thats where the resource is.    An element of the smarter city?   More details.

Disruption in the Auto Industry

Good overview in McKinsey.

" ... Technology-driven trends will revolutionize how industry players respond to changing consumer behavior, develop partnerships, and drive transformational change.

Today’s economies are dramatically changing, triggered by development in emerging markets, the accelerated rise of new technologies, sustainability policies, and changing consumer preferences around ownership. Digitization, increasing automation, and new business models have revolutionized other industries, and automotive will be no exception. These forces are giving rise to four disruptive technology-driven trends in the automotive sector: diverse mobility, autonomous driving, electrification, and connectivity. ... " 

City Design in the Self Drive era

Always interested in the difference between very specific infrastructure design and how it evolves based on use and need.  Here an example where cities may need to evolve very quickly.  In the Verge.

HBR on the Future of Cars

In the HBR:  How should we think about the future of cars?  Autonomous,   Intelligent.  As a service?  Regulatory?   Liability?   Beyond?

BMW Pushes Gesture Control

Always had my doubts about gestures control in cars, but BMW is pushing it:

In TheVerge:
Last CES, BMW teased the future of its human-machine interface with a gesture control demo — a capability that debuted later in 2015 on the new 7 Series. Once again, BMW will be showing a new form of system control at CES 2016 next week: AirTouch, they're calling it, which sounds like a much more advanced version of last year's gesture control system.

The system that's currently in the 7 Series is limited to just a small handful of basic controls — volume, for instance — but AirTouch "allows the display in a vehicle to be operated like a touchscreen without actually having to make contact with the surface" using an array of sensors in the interior. Basically, it sounds like you can use your outstretched hand like a mouse on the car's oversized display. Once you're focused on the on-screen item you want to select, the driver can use a button on the steering wheel to make the selection, and the passenger can do the same with a button on the door.  ... " 

What if Ford and Google Partner?

Most car makers are examining the space.   Implications are still unclear.  Would direct partnership with a car maker radically change the industry?

Who Wins If  Ford and Google Partner?    
Phil LeBeau, correspondent at CNBC

Industry insiders have long speculated that Silicon Valley's technology firms would eventually team up with Detroit's big automakers to develop self-driving vehicles. ... " 

Samsung and Automotive Systems

In CWorld: Samsung moves their technology into the auto industry.  This piece further looks at how other companies are in the automobile systems and sensors market, with links to further information. Implications for this particular kind of IOT will be considerable.

Steve Omohundro on Tesla, Echo and AI

Steve Omohundro interview.  Covering a number of favorite topics.

Vincent Everts interview on self-driving Teslas, Amazon Echo and Moral AI

Vincent Everts is a fascinating Dutch technologist who also travels around the world interviewing interesting people. He has a Tesla car whose software just got a “self-driving” update. We discussed the social impact of autonomous vehicles. On the one hand, it is likely to have positive effects such as reducing car accidents, eliminating parking problems, ameliorating traffic jams, etc. On the other hand, it brings up moral and ethical issues related to autonomous technology: How can we be sure these vehicles will drive safely? How should they decide whose safety to prioritize? Will current truck drivers, taxi drivers, and Uber drivers soon be out of a job? Military drones bring these questions into even sharper focus. And recent reports of Russia developing nuclear-armed drone submarines make them even more pressing. .... " 

Autonomy of Driverless Cars

In CWorld: At what point should cars be completely driverless?    The direction, certainly for delivery, seems to be fast approaching.   Some thoughts.

" .... If the problems that robotics encounters in extreme environments are any indicator, then self-driving cars are a bad idea, according to an MIT engineer and author of a new book on the subject. 

David Mindell, a professor of the History of Engineering and author of  Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy, said his argument against fully autonomous vehicles isn't based on principles, but on history.

"That's just proven to be a loser of an approach in a lot of other domains," Mindell said in an interview with the MIT News. "There are 40 years' worth of examples." ... " 

Smarter Automotive Systems

Very good overview piece in the CACM, as I see more automotive examples, this is the crux of it, at least before we use self driving cars.

" .... "There is a huge challenge associated with providing a driver with the right amount of information at the right time. You don't want to overwhelm a driver or have someone get to the point where they are distracted or tuning out crucial information," says Sam Abuelsamid, senior analyst on the Transportation Efficiencies Team at Navigant Research, which closely tracks automobile technologies. In recent years, auto manufacturers have introduced apps, speech recognition, and other systems, but often with limited success. "While these systems have delivered extra features to drivers, they've been limited in capabilities and the user interfaces have been relatively clunky," he notes. ... " 

Toyota Looks for AI to Empower Driving

An indication of where strong interest in AI is coming from. In Engadget.  " ... Toyota teams up with MIT and Stanford for AI research. ....  " .... . The carmaker will invest $50 million over the next five years in joint research centers and has hired former DARPA Program Manager Dr. Gill Pratt to lead the initiative. Dr. Pratt noted that in addition to using the research to reduce vehicle-related fatalities, "we want people to live a more dignified and more safe life." That includes using autonomous systems to enable the elderly to continue to be mobile after they have traditionally lost their licenses. That doesn't necessarily mean that drivers will become pure passengers according to Pratt. One of the goals is to "eliminate highway collisions without eliminating the fun of driving." .... " 

Analyzing Commuting Habits

In Datanami:  HP and Ford gather data, possible application to commuting efficiency improvement.

City for Robot Cars

A town designed for Robotic Cars  .... 32-Acre Michigan City to Hone Driving Skills,  By Keith Naughton

Suppose you set up a place or system where any human tacit machine or human skill could be practiced?  Skills recorded.  Errors better understood.   Called a simulator.

Jeep Hack Causes 1.4 Million Vehicle Recall

Overview of the Chrysler recall.  Amazing and frightening look at the future of transportation.  Chrysler knew of the possibility long before the hack was demonstrated.  The digital complexity of the modern vehicle is here already and growing.  Our future with these systems will change.  Regulatory changes emerging to patch the holes.  " ... Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the world's seventh largest automaker, today issued a recall notice for 1.4 million vehicles in order fix a software hole that allowed hackers to wirelessly break into some vehicles and electronically control vital functions. ... " 

Health care devices have related issues.

Vehicle Hacking and Security

This came to my mind as I had a new OS update put into my one year old car.  What are the dangers here?  I have no control of anti hacking or anti malware capabilities on its systems.  I did get an App with the car, but that App itself works poorly and appears to add no security I can see.

Hacker: 'Hundreds of thousands' of vehicles are at risk of attack
A security expert who recently demonstrated he could hack into a Jeep and control its most vital functions said the same could be done with hundreds of thousands of other vehicles on the road today.

Security experts Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek collaborated with Wired magazine to demonstrate how they could remotely hack into and control the entertainment system as well as more vital functions of a 2015 Jeep Cherokee.

Both hackers are experienced IT security researchers. Miller is a former NAS hacker and security researcher for Twitter and Valasek is the director of security research at IOActive, a consultancy. ... " 

Smartphone Apps as Car Keys

A natural solution. Encrypted signals from smartphones acting as passes into all sorts of systems.  In the NYT. Though the physical key will not be completely replaced, its battery does not fail.