As it turns out, the crux of the invention was head-slappingly simple: though a patent-pending idea Smith calls "get out of the way control, " the unit measures the load on each joint as its operator moves about, and figures out the direction it needs to move in 3-D space to literally move out of the way.
Together, the camera and laser sensors monitor the white lines and, if the car strays out of its lane, an electronic controlunit attached to an electric power-steering unit corrects it.