Intelligent autonomous vehicles: recent progress and central research issues

The wide range of applications involving automatically guided vehicles presents many problems for the guidance and control of such vehicles. The difficulties encountered in preparing an intelligent autonomous vehicle to travel across often unknown and frequently hazardous environments require the co-ordination of many sensors. Not only have the vehicles to steer, in the right direction, and avoid obstacles, but they also have to perform additional tasks on arrival, e.g. fire-fighting. Speed, direction and velocity have to be carefully monitored, often from a remote position or by preprogramming