Recently in February, Hino Motors introduced a mini bus on the public road near Tokyo’s Haneda Airport that moved at a speed of 10kph. What was surprising there were no passengers as well as no driver. This exercise was carried out as a trial run to test how effectively a self-driving bus can function on the roads and it was carried out by Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group and All Nippon Airways. The aim is to commercialize driverless transport at airports by 2020.
The high-tech industry in Japan foresees a great potential for improvising artificial intelligence technologies and robotics and implementing them in the airports. Some of the functionalities that are perfect for automation include information desk services that can be handled by AI and cleaning and deliver services, which can be managed by robots.
The intention behind testing driverless bus was that eventually shuttle buses and cargo vehicles will be replaced by self-driving transport. Right now human drivers are the one carrying crews and passengers between airplanes and terminals.
The risks associated with introducing driverless vehicles in the airport are reduced as the lanes for ground traffic doesn’t feature that many signals or even pedestrians as public roads.
The recent test was quite a success as it was able to achieve Level 4 self-driving autonomy. This signifies that the vehicle was equipped to handle autonomous driving in restricted areas under certain conditions. The Japanese government has defined five levels of autonomous driving for ground vehicles.
ANA is hoping to extend the test by choosing to operate a driverless bus that will carry real passengers by March 2019.
Shinya Katanozaka, president of ANA Holdings said, “We seek to make the most of robots and artificial intelligence to provide better service to customers. The ground handling services provided by airlines at airports have progressed little over past decades.”
Playing an important role is the remote control system designed by SoftBank subsidiary SB Drive. Known as Dispatcher, this system utilizes GPS to record drivers’ routes, notice obstacles, moving cars and pedestrians with cameras and sensors placed at the front, rear and on the sides of the bus.
The AI capability of the system helps to diagnose unusual circumstances both inside and outside the vehicle. If a situation arises where a passenger falls, the system would instantly report this incident to the administrator, who can check in real time using monitors.