Design and capabilities of the Munich Cognitive Automobile

This paper presents the design of the cognitive automobile in Munich. The focus of the capabilities shown here is the navigation on highways and rural roads. The emphasis on higher speed requires early detection of far field objects, so a multi focal active vision with gaze control is essential. For increased robustness lidar range sensors are combined with vision using an object fusion approach. An elaborate safety concept and a verification stage ensure a safe behavior of the vehicle in all situations. A communication system enables the vehicle to perform cooperative perception and action together with similar intelligent vehicles.