WMG implements hi-tech solutions for driverless vehicle trials

AROUND 30 miles of Coventry roads are to be laser scanned in order to test driverless vehicles as part of a new research programme.

WMG will work with Coventry-based RDM Group, the UK’s only designer and manufacturer of driverless pods, as part of a project called INnovative Testing of Autonomous Control Techniques (INTACT).

The project, funded by Innovate UK, will enable automotive innovation experts at RDM to test its vehicles on one of the world’s most adaptable and advanced driving simulators, which is based at WMG.

Professor Paul Jennings, from WMG at the University of Warwick said: “The vehicles will be tested on a state of the art simulator we have just installed in WMG. It will use a LIDAR scan (essentially a high resolution laser scan of an environment) of 30 miles of real roads around the city of Coventry to the test vehicles in the simulator.
 
“The simulator can be configured so that different vehicles can be driven into it for testing, and the real world wireless environment will be recreated too. We believe both will be novel capabilities for such an advanced simulator.”
 
David Keene, chairman of RDM Group, said: “It is fantastic that we have such advanced simulation technology at our disposal to analyse how driverless vehicles will react before being deployed in the real world.
 
“It will speed up the testing process considerably and help with the positioning of the sensors on the pods. Yet another example of how university and industry can work together to put the region and the country at the forefront of driverless technology.”

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