Vision-based vehicles in Japan: the machine vision systems and driving control systems

The author surveys the configuration, machine vision systems and driving control systems of three intelligent vehicles developed in Japan, and discusses the significance in automobile traffic of the future. The intelligent vehicle of AISI, MITI developed since the mid 1970s, has a machine vision system for obstacle detection and an autonomous navigation system based on dead reckoning on a compact car. The machine vision system is featured by real-time processing using hard-wired logic. The Personal Vehicle System (PVS), developed in the late 1980s by Fujitsu amd Nissan, is a comprehensive test system for a vision-based vehicle. The machine vision system captures lane markings at both road edges for lateral control. The PVS has another machine vision system for obstacle detection. An intelligent automobile, named the Automated Highway Vehicle System (AHVS), developed by Toyota is capable of lane-keeping using machine vision. The three vehicles drove at 10-60 km/h. The possibility of solution of automobile traffic problems such as traffic accidents, congestion, and pollution using intelligent vehicles is discussed.