(7 apr) The Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (Insa) of Rouen, in France, decided to assign PhD Honoris Causa to Alberto Broggi, professor at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Parma and CEO of VisLab srl. The recognition to Broggi has been awarded last Friday for the uniqueness of the academic and research topics related to those in which the INSA is involved. The research activities of Broggi, mainly focused on the application artificial vision to intelligent vehicles, has profoundly influenced the field of vehicular robotics, helping to define numerous milestones for automatic driving of vehicles recognized by the internationally scientific community. Some basic techniques for the interpretation of the surrounding environment of the vehicle have been developed and demonstrated in real cases: the first test in the world (2.000 km on Italian motorways) in low cost semi-automatic processing systems with in 1998; the participation and success in the DARPA Challenges, one of the most renowned research groups in the world; the firstand still unique test of Intercontinental autonomous driving (from Parma to Shanghai, China, from July to October 2010); the first test of automatic guidance in Parma, on public roads open to traffic in the urban environment in July 2013, with no one in the driving seat. (9colonne)
