18th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, June 23-25, 2010, Congress Palace, Marrakech, Morocco

About The 18th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED'10, will be held for the first time in Marrakech, Morocco, at the Hotel Mansour Eddahbi - Palais des Congres . Marrakech the red city, the enchantress, is above all an imperial city. Located in a plain gained on the desert and leaned with the majestic snow-covered mountains at the High Atlas, this large oasis is today an economic pole and one of the Moroccan tourist destinations, thanks to its history and to its adapted hotel infrastructure. Between tradition and modernity, between the Medina of another age and European Neighbourhoods, this city has what to disconcert the tourist through time. Make sure to visit the famous Djemma el Fna, the heart of Marrakech. This large central square in the old city (Medina) transforms from a shopping heaven into an entertainment paradise in the afternoon -the square really comes alive. The souks of Marrakech are considered to be among the best in Morocco .

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Adaptive control Aerospace control Agents & agent-based systems Biologically inspired systems, control Bond Graph Computational intelligence Computer controlled systems Computing & communications Decentralized control Discrete event systems Distributed systems Education & training Embedded control systems Fault diagnosis Fault tolerant Control Fuzzy systems Genetic & evolutionary computation Hybrid systems Image processing Industrial automation, manufacturing Intelligent control systems

Intelligent transportation systems Linear systems Micro and nano systems Modeling & simulation Neural networks Networked control systems Non-linear systems Optimization Petri nets Power systems Predictive control Process control Real-time control Renewable energy and sustainability Robotics Robust control Spectral estimation Swarms Robotics Unmanned Systems Virtual reality Wireless sensor networks

Computer Program Allows Car to Stay in Its Lane Without Human Control

Researchers from North Carolina State University have created a computer program that allows a car to stay in its lane without human control, opening the door to the development of new automobile safety features and military applications that could save lives.

"We develop computer vision programs, which allow a computer to understand what a video camera is looking at -- whether it is a stop sign or a pedestrian. For example, this particular program is designed to allow a computer to keep a car within a lane on a highway, because we plan to use the program to drive a car," says Dr. Wesley Snyder, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. "Although there are some vision systems out there already that can do lane finding, our program maintains an awareness of multiple lanes and traffic in those lanes."

Specifically, Snyder and his co-authors have written a program that uses algorithms to sort visual data and make decisions related to finding the lanes of a road, detecting how those lanes change as a car is moving, and controlling the car to stay in the correct lane.

"This research has many potential uses," Snyder says, "such as the development of military applications related to surveillance, reconnaissance and transportation of materials.

"This computer vision technology will also enable the development of new automobile safety features, including systems that can allow cars to stay in their lane, avoid traffic and gracefully react to emergency situations -- such as those where a driver has fallen asleep at the wheel, had a heart attack or gone into diabetic shock. This can help protect not only the car that has the safety feature, but other drivers on the road as well. That's a next generation of this research."

Source: North Carolina State University (2010, April 7). Computer program allows car to stay in its lane without human control. ScienceDaily. Retrieved