Ford brings 'Skynet' to white van testing

Ford claims that the robots it has introduced to test its new Transit van absolve human drivers of the physical stress and strain that go with the company's range of durability tests.

According to the company, the role of pummelling vans over kerbs all day is simply too 'taxing' for human beings.

“Some of the tests we do on our commercial trucks for North America are so strenuous that we limit the exposure time for human drivers,” says Dave Payne, manager of vehicle development operations. “The challenge is completing testing to meet vehicle development time lines while keeping our drivers comfortable.

“Robotic testing allows us to do both,” he says. “We accelerate durability testing while simultaneously increasing the productivity of our other programs by redeploying drivers to those areas, such as noise level and vehicle dynamics testing.”

Ford can run up to eight vehicles robotically at the one time, with an operator monitoring progress of all eight via a bank of monitors back at base.

The embedded video below shows how the robots operate the vehicles, and some of the crunches and grinds will make you cringe. Programming has brought to fruition everyone's worst nightmare – badly driven vans with a tireless automaton at the wheel. Fortunately we won't see this on public roads any time soon.

The manufacturer has revealed that the robotically-controlled vehicles negotiate 10 years' of abusive driving in a section of test track a few hundred metres long. Among the sort of surfaces travelled are "broken concrete, cobblestones, metal grates, rough gravel, mud pits and oversized speed bumps."

The testing is repeatable to a degree of accuracy not likely achievable by flesh-and-blood test drivers. A robotic control module in each vehicle controls steering, acceleration and braking, in accordance with a programmed course, which is maintained to within an inch (2.5cm) either way through GPS tracking.

Ford allows for the possibility that a robot may turn berserk, with engineers able to conclude the test immediately, correct the course if it's wrong, and restart the test. Equipped with sensors for the job, the robot has the autonomy to bring the van to a full stop in the event a pedestrian crosses its path.

Development of the robots was the task of Autonomous Solutions Inc, which sees a future in agriculture and military operations for its products.

“We’re very excited to work with Ford for autonomous vehicle testing,” says Mel Torrie, company CEO. “The reliability, durability and performance enhancements we’ve developed with Ford will not only help them reach their safety and accuracy goals, but will also improve vehicle automation in other areas such as mining, agriculture and the U.S. military.”

For its part, Ford doesn't see the robots as being a tentative step in the direction of fully autonomous driving.

“The goal here was not to develop a truly autonomous vehicle that can drive itself on city streets,” says Payne. “Our objective was to create a test track solution that allows for this type of intense testing that could take our vehicles to the most extreme limits of their engineering while ensuring the safety of all involved.”

Central to the video is the new Transit, which has already been revealed in Birmingham as the pinnacle of a new family of commercial vehicles wearing the Ford badge. Plans are proceeding for the new Transit to reach global markets from next year.

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