“Collective perception” will help atomobiles to see hidden dangers.

The University of Sydney, together with the Australian technology company Cohda Wireless, is developing a “collective perception” technology that is intended for unmanned vehicles and on-board systems of conventional vehicles. Its essence is that all participants of the movement monitor not only the surrounding situation, but also each other. And if they see that another participant is in danger, which he physically cannot notice, then they urgently inform him about it.

As an example, we can cite the situation with the passage of the intersection, when there is a large van in front of the car and blocks the view of its cameras. However, cars from the opposite side of the road and from the side tracks can see what is inaccessible to the first. They assess the situation and, if they conclude that there is interference, transmit this data to the first car. In addition to vehicles, road infrastructure elements are also involved in the work, which can better collect information during bad weather.

One of the options for implementing such warnings is to display images on the windshield in the “X-ray style” using augmented reality technology. For example, an image of a pedestrian walking behind a wall, and in a second will step off the sidewalk onto the road. This is a real situation, successfully worked out at the first stages of testing the system at the Australian Center for Field Robotics in Sydney.