Ancillary Ultrasonic Rangefinder for Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

The latest fatal accidents of autonomous vehicle happened because of undetected peer vehicles or persons. These fatal accidents call attention to the rangefinder devices which are a very significant component of every autonomous vehicle. The rangefinder is the starting point for the decision whether the vehicle should continue to go, to stop, or bypassing an object. In this paper an ultrasonic based rangefinder device for autonomous vehicles is presented. The device can be used as an ancillary system in addition to standard LIDAR system used by almost all the autonomous vehicles, with the aim of overcoming the obstructions of conventional LIDAR systems.