Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement and the Engineering Club sponsored a visit from Oregon State University student of engineering Matthew Knudson, to demonstrate his autonomous vehicle at Bakersfield College.
The autonomous vehicle is a small robotic automobile that can drive itself with no human intervention.
The vehicle is small with outstanding mobility and weighs 900 pounds and goes 45 mph.
It is fueled by gasoline and combined with technobots, simulation software, and mechanical and electrical systems.
This robot car can go over stairs and mounds of dirt; it can go over many obstacles by simply observing the area.
For safety purposes it will shut off if the area around it becomes too loud However, the vehicle cannot reverse.
The purpose of creating this vehicle is to help in the military and, according to Knudson, “it was made to save lives.”
By having vehicles that can run on their own, fewer human lives will be in danger.
Knudson also said, “In the future, the military would like all vehicles to become autonomous vehicles.”
This would work by the automobile receiving a large list of the area and it then tells the car how fast to visit that area with a maximum speed.
Knudson said that we will see more of this application in the future and in 10 years it will be used for commercial purposes.
The autonomous vehicle was displayed March 28 at BC.
It was created by the Oregon WAVE to be placed in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, Grand Challenge competition in 2005.
Behind the Science and Engineering Building parking lot, Knudson allowed the crowd to see a test-drive.
Knudson controlled the vehicle with a standard remote for safety purposes, yet it does actually run alone.
It took a year and half to create and was made by students, professors and engineers. All were volunteers.
Connie Gonzales, director of the MESA program, enjoyed the presentation.
“It was very informative. We should bring this to BC, our community, and students,” she said. “We don’t get to see this all the time at a community college,”
The purpose of the MESA and Engineers club sponsering this event, was to bring this technology to BC and allow students to see what others are working on since these types of projects are not on campus.