According to ICT Results, a EU-funded project named Embounded 'has achieved the twin, and apparently contradictory goals, of making embedded systems both smarter and tougher.' One example is the robuCAB, a '4 seats automated people mover' developed by a French company and built from a 4 wheel-drive electric chassis with on-board PC. This autonomous vehicle follows the kerb and carries several embedded systems, with one camera on the path edge, another device tracking the angle and direction of the kerb, while others control the gearing and acceleration. robuCABs are not totally independent. They move over pre-defined circuits which contain a series of sensors below the ground. But read more...
You can see above two robuCABs on the road. (Credit: Robosoft) Here is a link to a mini picture gallery. Robosoft is a French company based in the Technopole d'Izarbel Bidart and has a long history of designing high-end innovative service robots. It was founded in 1985 as a start-up of the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA).
You'll find more details about the robuCAB Automated People Mover by reading its specifications (PDF format, 2 pages, 303 KB). The picture above was extracted from this document. You also can read a technical paper called "Modular Distributed Architecture for Robotics Embedded Systems3 (PDF format, 6 pages, 1.02 MB). I've also used some information picked from an older article published by innovations report, "Robots who carry out us numerous tasks" (June 1, 2004).
