Purdue University researchers are leveraging the University of Michigan's Mcity Test Facility to remotely test their autonomous vehicle technology, reports Highway News in an article by Paul Hutton posted to its website today. According to the article, this is a first-of-its-kind venture; the team is using real and virtual cars and pedestrians to challenge their system from over 200 miles away.
The opportunity comes just over a year after U-M announced its Mcity 2.0 project, an upgrade to the world's first purpose-built test environment for autonomous vehicles and connected technologies. With a $5.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the project allows researchers across the US to access the Mcity facility's tech and datasets without needing to travel to Michigan, a move that has proved beneficial for the Purdue team.
Lacking a dedicated urban testing facility and faced with the dangers of public road testing, Purdue's engineers have been able to systematically explore the performance of their AV algorithms in a realistic environment. This remote facility has also enabled them to delve into other complex aspects of automated driving, including 5G communication, infrastructure applications, and interactions with traffic signals.
To read more about their innovative research project, have a look at the full article here.