The findings of the pre-competitive research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and initiated by the German Association of the Automotive Industry’s (VDA) flagship initiative Autonomous and Connected Driving, were discussed in detail at the final presentation at the Carl Benz Arena in Stuttgart on November 21, 2023.

The higher the level of automated driving and the more complex a system’s area of application, the more factors there are that need to be taken into account during development. The first SAE Level 3 systems for freeway driving and an SAE Level 4 system for driverless parking have already been approved. Expanding the use of these systems to other applications – such as urban traffic – means that the vehicle and system become much more complex and subject to far stricter requirements.

To be able to provide safety verification, the 21 project partners have jointly developed a model comprising a suite of procedures, methods and tools. This enables a security argumentation to be employed to verify that the system is safe to use.

During the development of the methodology for this model, the partners worked together in several sub-projects. Dr Helmut Schittenhelm, project coordinator at Mercedes-Benz, explained, “The models developed here make it possible for the first time to provide all auto makers with the same structures for the verification and validation of automated driving systems in urban areas.”

Roland Galbas from Bosch, the coordinator of the VVM consortium project, added, “Pedestrians, cyclists, motorized two-wheelers, intersections with limited visibility: one of the biggest challenges for automated driving systems is coping with traffic in an urban environment, which is characterized by a huge volume of road users, traffic light systems, traffic signs, and vehicles.”

“The essence of the VVM research project is to verify that automated driving functions react safely and reliably, and that they also benefit customers in terms of precision and quality,” said Dr Mark Schiementz from BMW, the co-coordinator of the project.

The VVM project’s methodological approach is the world’s first standard to also take industrial processes into account, once again underscoring the German automotive industry’s pioneering role in automated driving. The world’s first regulation for fully automated driving (SAE Level 4) came into force in 2021, when Germany enacted a law to that effect. In 2022, a corresponding regulation outlining the technical details was passed to allow such vehicles to be registered and operated on German roads.

At the end of its project term, and building on the results of its Pegasus and SetLevel predecessor projects, VVM has now delivered the world’s first consistent methodical approach to safety for automated driving in an urban environment, enabling industry-wide collaboration and value creation.

The event will take place at Messe Bremen, Germany, on September 27 & 28, 2023. More than 10,000 industry professionals, researchers, investors and stakeholders are expected to attend, making it a key opportunity for those seeking to explore cutting-edge clean energy solutions. With its annual presence in Bremen, Hydrogen Technology Expo Europe has become the must-attend hydrogen energy event of the year.

The expo gives attendees the chance to experience innovations from industry-leading solution providers. Notable names such as Siemens Energy, Air Liquide, Baker Hughes, Evonik, Air Products, ABB, E.ON, Shell, Aramco and ExxonMobil will showcase their latest contributions to the field, demonstrating their commitment to shaping the future of hydrogen technology.

Charlie Brandon, director of the event, stated, “This year’s event is set to be our largest yet. Last year’s success and the surge in demand for exhibitor space highlight the growing interest and significance of the hydrogen sector. With over 200 new exhibitors joining us this year and a total exhibition area spanning 25,000m2  of gross space, we are thrilled to welcome everyone to Bremen at the end of September.”

Hydrogen Technology Expo will run alongside Carbon Capture Technology Expo and the Electric & Hybrid Aerospace Technology Symposium. This combination makes the event one of the largest gatherings dedicated to showcasing innovative technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions in challenging sectors such as steel and cement production, chemical and plastics processing, mobility and the aviation industry.

For industry professionals, entry to all three events is complimentary. Alternatively, attendees can upgrade their entry pass to gain access to six concurrent conferences featuring more than 200 esteemed industry speakers.

The company has developed animal targets, known as 4activeAN dummies, as part of a long-term research project to create a variety of realistic animal targets (roe deer, white-tail deer, moose, wild boar, etc). Each target is extremely lightweight with a soft structure to prevent damage to the VUT. Depicting the animals’ physical attributes is intended to create a more efficient ADAS testing solution. Different options, such as additional synchronized articulation, or heated versions for thermal cameras, are available for testing. This solution can also be combined with 4activeSB or the driverless robotic platform 4activeFB-small.

Fraser Shilling, director of the UC Davis Road Ecology Center at the University of California Davis, said, “We estimate that in about 50% of collisions with animals, the cars cannot be driven away. Moreover, accidents with large animals such as roe deer are notably the most dangerous for occupants of the car. Due to the nature of the deer and the circumstances of the accident, passive safety systems such as airbags do not protect occupants when the deer comes through the windshield. Statistics from all over the world clearly show that the local form of deer/elk represent the highest number of reported animal-vehicle crashes. In addition, central Europe also has a vast number of incidents with wild boar.”

The project is expected to help achieve safer and more comfortable maneuvers along high-speed junctions, such as motorway merges. AutopleX brought together WMG and automotive and mobility management partners Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Yunex Traffic, as well as public bodies such as Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) and National Highways. The Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and Innovate UK have jointly funded £2.6m (US$3m) for the collaborative R&D project AutopleX between March 2019 and September 2022.

Supported by the WMG Centre High Value Manufacturing Catapult, engineers and researchers at WMG have built a proof-of-concept demonstrator, where technology within a test vehicle (also known as ‘the Ego vehicle’) including global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), lidar and cameras, was fused with infrastructure-based sensing received over a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication system. This was to create a more comprehensive understanding of the environment in which the vehicle was traveling.

The AutopleX showcase demonstration took place via a live road traffic environment at Junction 15 of the M40 in March 2022. Yunex Traffic developed the roadside perception system, including three radars and V2X communication technology, while National Highways ensured its safe installation and effective operation. Furthermore, WMG and Jaguar Land Rover researchers jointly developed intelligent trajectory-planning algorithms, which used the combined perception to design a high-speed merging maneuver that is efficient, smooth and safe.

The project implemented and demonstrated the developed technology, collecting, annotating and processing vast data sets including more than eight months of road traffic data using 10 infrastructure cameras and three radars. These data sets could be made available to selected organizations outside of the AutopleX consortium for user trials and feedback. In addition, it constitutes valuable R&D data that can be used in WMG’s Doctoral Training Centre in Future Mobility Technologies, as well as WMG’s MSc program in Smart Connected and Automated Vehicles (SCAV).

Colin Teed, AutopleX project manager at Jaguar Land Rover, said, “Merging at high-speed junctions will be a standard action autonomous vehicles must perform and constitutes an important step in realizing the vision of connected and automated mobility.”

Professor Mehrdad Dianati, head of intelligent vehicles research at WMG, added, “Onboard sensors may suffer from several limitations such as occlusions, limited range and other forms of impairments. Especially at motorway junctions, where the speed of vehicles is usually high, undetected traffic objects by the onboard sensor suite can impose severe threats on safety. Onboard perception can, therefore, become insufficient as a standalone solution for Level 4 autonomy. In this regard, the AutopleX project has developed a proof-of-concept solution that combines, in real time, the onboard perception of a connected vehicle approaching a motorway with infrastructure-based sensing for supporting a safe merge.”

Dr Konstantinos Koufos, senior research fellow at WMG, commented, “While the Open Innovation Vehicle Platform was driven by a human driver, the calculated trajectory, including speed and steering, of a hypothetical vehicle using the combined perception was visualized in real time on the in-vehicle monitors. This allowed the passengers to compare the trajectory of the hypothetical (or ghost) vehicle with the actual trajectory of the human-driven vehicle. Key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with road safety and passenger comfort were also calculated and compared during the merging maneuver. The next major step would be to engage the calculated trajectory of the ghost vehicle with the drive-by-wire system of the Open Innovation Vehicle Platform.”

Jet Feng, a project engineer at WMG, explained, “The roadside perception including the locations, speed and steering angle of motorway vehicles, was continuously broadcast (in the form of collective perception messages (CPMs)) and received by the vehicle’s onboard communication unit (OBU) on the Open Innovation Vehicle Platform while approaching the merging point of the junction. The received information was then combined with the onboard perception to improve the overall understanding of the environment and was visualized in real time via a bird’s eye view map of the junction, allowing the passengers to observe road traffic objects along the M40, which were not otherwise visible due to occlusions.”