New algorithm for self-driving vehicles has a bold ‘collision-free guarantee’
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New algorithm for self-driving vehicles has a bold 'collision-free guarantee'
Northwestern University researchers tested their invention on a swarm of 100 robots
Researchers have developed an algorithm that could stop self-driving vehicles from getting in crashes and traffic jams.
The team from Northwestern University (NU) claims their invention is "the first decentralized algorithm with a collision-free, deadlock-free guarantee."
The algorithm divides the ground beneath the machines into a grid. The robots learn their position through technology similar to GPS and coordinate their movements through sensors that assess where there's free space to move.
"The robots refuse to move to a spot until that spot is free and until they know that no other robots are moving to that same spot," said Northwestern Engineering's Michael Rubenstein, who led the study. "They are careful and reserve a space ahead of time."
[Read: Some Teslas have been tricked into speeding by tape stuck on road signs]
Rubenstein's team tested their algorithm on a swarm of 100 robots set up in their lab. In less than a minute, the ro