Projects

Team-LUX @ Darpa Urban Challenge

In November 2007, Ibeo's Team-LUX demonstrated the performance of its driverless “LUX” car in the DARPA Urban Challenge race. The “LUX” is a vehicle that can drive entirely autonomously thanks to “intelligent eyes”. The LUX car can cope with typical urban traffic situations such as taking consideration of oncoming traffic, passing, turning left or right, calculating routes, U-turns and even difficult situations at crossroads. All of this is made possible with ibeo LUX laser scanners.

From the outside, the LUX looks like a normal road vehicle. This is what clearly distinguishes it from its Challenge competitors. To detect obstacles as well as lane markings, road boundaries, or other vehicles, 3 high resolution laserscanners are intergrated into the LUX’ body, giving the car 360° vision. Two of them are integrated into the front bumper which enables a field of view of up to 220°. To observe the area behind the vehicle a third (rear) laserscanner is integrated with a field of view of about 150°.

With the help of tracking algorithms, the area around the car is monitored and the car can distinguish between stationary obstacles and moving vehicles. This is necessary, for example, to distinguish vehicles from traffic refuges and to determine what car has the right of way.

During the Darpa Urban Challenge, the performance of the ibeo LUX laser scanner was tested under harsh competitive conditions. Autonomous driving is the supreme discipline. Anyhow, Ibeo develops laser scanners for today's cooperative vehicle. The sensor enables reliable driver assistance solutions and makes driving a car safer.