Electronic control for automatic driving

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1953
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 153 KB
• Volume: 256
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(53)90637-1

✦ Synopsis

by Dr. V. K. Zworykin, pioneer television and electronic scientist of the Radio Corporation of America.

Recent electronic advances, such as the tiny, power-thrifty transistor, indicate that electronic aids to many automobile driving problems are approaching the realm of practical application, according to Dr. Zworykin. Although the day of completely automatic control of automobiles is far off, Dr. Zworykin said, certain electronic devices to assist drivers in such matters as bad weather steering and collision prevention are nearer at hand.

To study the basic problems of automatic driving, Dr. Zworykin and assistants at the David Sarnoff Research Center of RCA, in Princeton, N. J., have equipped a model five-foot car with electronic equipment. This laboratory car, which is powered by a storage battery, can: 1. Steer itself along a prescribed route ; 2. Stop itself when approaching a metal obstruction; and 3. Turn out of its original lane into a second lane as if to pass another car moving at a slower speed.

In the laboratory set-up, the model car is guided by a wire which represents a cable that would be laid in the roadbed of a superhighway. The wire sets up a magnetic field of a certain frequency which is picked up by the two coils, one on each side of the car. If one coil receives more of the signal than the other it means the car is no longer centered over the wire and electronic equipment controlling the steering wheel immediately brings the car back "on course."

To prevent a collision with an obstruction, simple transistor circuits