IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2011 - 122

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distance of more than 13,000 km
(Figure 4). On the trek from Italy to
China through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, and
Kazakhstan, vehicles and crew encountered lots of peculiar experiences and, of course, a few troubles.
When the expedition reached Rostov, one of the vehicles started to have
some problems with its traction batteries [Figure 5(d)] that became more
and more serious as they approached
Moscow. The crew finally found a
machine shop with an overhead traveling crane to lift the vehicle and
change its entire set of traction batteries [Figure 5(e)].
A few days later, just outside Moscow, a couple of Russian guys [Figure
5(f)] met the expedition and asked
for an autonomous lift to Shanghai,
becoming the first hitchhikers ever
traveling on an autonomous vehicle.
They had also prepared a banner with
VisLab's logo and greetings written in
Italian [Figure 5(g)]. The crew found
this expedition to be a really gratifying
encounter.
To display VisLab technologies,
press conferences and live demos
were organized in major cities along
the route. People of all ages and professions came to watch and ask the

Figure 4. Route covered by VIAC: more
than 13,000 km from Italy to China. More
details can be found on the VIAC Web
site: www.viac.vislab.it.

VisLab researchers questions. The
interest and participation of the
people they met during the demos
[Figure 6(b)-(h)] along the route
gave the entire team great satisfaction and encouragement throughout the whole trip.
While preparing a demo in Ufa,
another odd episode happened. While
testing the driverless vehicles in a
pedestrian area, a local policeman,
apparently unaware of the VisLab
researchers' presence, saw the vehicles moving around and immediately approached only to realize that

no one appeared to be behind the
steering wheels. The officer was not
amused.
Some of the researchers went to
meet him but found that he was not
inclined to be cooperative. Instead,
he wanted to issue a ticket to somebody for driving in a restricted area.
However, when he eventually understood what was going on, things were
settled [Figure 6(c)]. The autonomous vehicle had dodged its first
traffic ticket.
One of the most interesting sections of the route was the journey
from Almaty, Kazakhstan's former
capital (now Astana), to Yining, China.
Despite the long offroad track with
major road construction that presented substantial challenges to the
vehicles and crew, the magnificence of
the Tien Shan chain (Celestial Mountains) lying beside the Taklamakan
Desert in the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China was unforgettable [Figure 7(b)
and (c)].
Also of interest were the visits to
the Chinese government office that
issues driving licenses and registers
vehicles. The Chinese Road Code
forbids vehicles without a Chinese

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

Figure 5. (a) Entering Belgrade, (b) heading toward Budapest, (c) driving by Rostov's War Memorial, (d) if something goes wrong,
(e) changing batteries at the machine shop in Moscow, (f) two hitchhiker's meeting outside Moscow asking for a driverless lift to
Shanghai, (g) their banner for VisLab: "Saluti, futuro!" is the Italian word for "Hello, future!," and (h) in front of Lenin's statue at
Niznij Novgorod.

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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SEPTEMBER 2011
http://www.viac.vislab.it
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2011
