LONDON: For the first time, the transport industry will be able to accurately correlate simulated testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads in the UK.
This paves the way for simulation to become a recognised part of the approval process for autonomous vehicles.
This capability has been achieved thanks to a project between simulation software specialist rFpro and WMG, at the University of Warwick.
“You cannot feasibly validate autonomous vehicles in the real world alone, there simply isn’t enough time or money. We must also exploit the expandability of simulation,” said Matt Daley, rFpro Managing Director.
“To do that we must trust the simulation results and so it is vital that we regularly check that they correlate with the real world. Our project with WMG enables the industry to do this on public roads for the first time in the UK. This is a big step towards the approval and adoption of autonomous vehicles.”
rFpro has created a highly accurate digital-twin of sections of the Midlands Future Mobility testbed. While the model will enable the development of autonomous vehicles in simulation, WMG, alongside other Midlands Future Mobility partners, will provide testing and research support to allow customers to carry out effective real-world correlation.
There are currently three areas within the Midlands Future Mobility testbed that can be used immediately to accurately validate virtual test data on public roads; a road network around the University of Warwick campus, an area of Coventry town centre and a section of Holyhead Road, which is one of the main roads in and out of Coventry.
These areas provide a varied selection of roads that are common across the UK. WMG and rFpro are already exploring phase two, with the aim of further extending the digital-twins to cover more of the Midlands Future Mobility route.
More importantly, these real-world routes have the necessary infrastructure required for such autonomous vehicle testing and includes geo-fenced Closed Circuit TV, real-time kinematic corrected GPS and high-capacity wireless connectivity.
This provides independently verified ground truth of the real-world event that is critical for correlation.
