Ford Using Robotic Test Drivers for Trucks 

Photo Courtesy Ford Motor Company

By Holly Gonzalez 



Ford is now the first automaker to develop a robotic test-driving program to drive vehicles in high impact on-road and off-road durability testing at their Michigan Proving Ground in Romeo, Mich. The purpose of using robots will be for driving Ford trucks when the terrain is too taxing for human drivers. Autonomous Solutions Inc. provided Ford with the design and manufacturing of the software for the robotic operations. 



Autonomous Solutions’ CEO Mel Torrie said, “The reliability, durability and performance enhancements we’ve developed with Ford will not only help them reach their safety and accuracy goals, but will also improve vehicle automation in other areas such as mining, agriculture and the U.S. military.”



The durability technology consists of a robotic control module in the test vehicle to control steering, acceleration and braking. The module is able to follow a preprogrammed course that the engineers can correct and restart. The vehicle is tracked by cameras in its central control room, is almost GPS accurate and uses onboard sensors to track hazards in its path. The trucks travel on terrain such as broken concrete, cobblestones, metal grates, rough gravel, mud pits and oversized speed bumps. The robots improve testing so that 10 years of daily driving abuse can be tested in a few hundred-yard-long courses. 



The use of robots aims to meet demands in strenuous testing of Ford trucks with greater frequency. This accelerated testing allows engineers to repeat tests to obtain desired results and create more challenging durability tests for tougher trucks. Ford’s specific goals are to protect human drivers and make the toughest trucks possible. 



Dave Payne, Ford’s manager of vehicle development, said, “Some of the tests we do on our commercial trucks for North America are so strenuous that we limit the exposure time for human drivers. The challenge is completing testing to meet vehicle development timelines while keeping our drivers comfortable. Robotic testing allows us to do both. We accelerate durability testing while simultaneously increasing the productivity of our other programs by redeploying drivers to those areas, such as noise level and vehicle dynamics testing.”