In sync: International collaboration enhances automated vehicle safety tests

A turning Ford F-150 came to a halt just in time to avoid the figure that darted in front of it on a cool October morning in Blacksburg.

Similiar incidents likely occur in many busy towns, but this one that stood out for what wasn’t present – human involvement.

The moment was entirely automated as a result of collaboration between the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, through researchers at its proving ground, AstaZero. On the closed-course Smart Road, VTTI’s automated pickup truck was synced with AstaZero’s automated open-source Automated vehicle Test Operating System (ATOS). It choreographed the pedestrian dummy’s movement across the intersection to see if the truck would stop itself in time, which it did multiple times.

The event demonstrated a method for evaluating automated vehicles safety and marked a milestone for the research partners, who originally connected at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“Together, we’re trying to come up with a standardized testing procedure for these vehicles and a way to execute them efficiently and effectively,” said Mike Mollenhauer, VTTI’s division director of technology implementation. “It’s really about developing public confidence in the safety of automated vehicles with the public, both those riding in the vehicles and those outside interacting with it.”

Mollenhauer said current safety testing for self-driving vehicles is often directed by individual companies and tailored to their automobiles. By leveraging AstaZero’s ATOS testing platform, he believes the two groups can create a method to evaluate automated driving systems that is uniform and scalable into the future for a variety of conditions.

“We want to make sure we have a repeatable process for testing current systems, new systems that are developed, and more complex scenarios as this technology grows,” he said.

VTTI is home to one of the world’s largest groups of transportation safety researchers and is well known for advancing the design of vehicles and infrastructure to increase safety and reduce environmental impacts.

AstaZero, which is owned by the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, is home to the world’s first full-scale independent test environment for the automated transport system of the future. The facility features a range of traffic environments that make it possible to test advanced safety systems and their functions for all types of traffic and  situations, including a 700-meter indoor track, according to its website.

AstaZero’s Timo Kero said after being introduced to VTTI, his team compared the two group’s research assets looking for how they might help each other. One big thing stood out about the institute.

“It was the Smart Road with its rain and fog,” said Kero, AstaZero’s chief technology officer. “That’s what really got our attention because we only have a dry road. So we began to think, 'How can we complement each other?'”

VTTI leaned into the experience of research scientist Jacobo Antona-Makoshi to cultivate working relationships and identify the best areas for collaboration. During his graduate studies, Antona-Makoshi studied and worked in Gothenburg, Sweden, and he has since built many partnerships with Swedish universities, companies, and research institutions, including AstaZero.

“So this project has some personal value to me as well,” said Antona-Makoshi, who is in VTTI’s Division of Vehicle, Driver, and System Safety. “I’ve always had such good relationships with partners in Sweden, it makes it easy to want to develop future collaborations.”

Kero said Antona-Makoshi’s previous work with AstaZero and visits to its proving ground helped expedite the relationship between the two research groups.

“We didn’t have to explain everything to him because he already knew what kind of animal we are,” Kero said.

Antona-Makoshi worked with AstaZero’s research lead, Victor Jarlow, to identify how to best leverage both groups’ expertise. It soon became clear that an initial way to partner was to focus on safety evaluation for automated vehicles, a priority for both institutes. Jarlow spent three months working with VTTI researchers in Blacksburg to integrate their automated system.

“My time at VTTI was incredibly rewarding,” Jarlow said. “We exchanged ideas and perspectives that I’m excited to carry back to Sweden, and I hope that my time in Blacksburg contributed positively to the work as well. I had the opportunity to spend time at VTTI twice, once in the spring and again in the autumn, and each visit strengthened both our technical work and our collaborative relationship.”

VTTI has a history of advancing autonomous driving technology for both passenger vehicles and semi-trucks. This includes the successful demonstration of its Level 4 autonomous driving system in several highway emergency scenarios the greater Washington, D.C., area and the recent completion of a concept of operations for autonomous trucking.

Kero said AstaZero’s research in this space extends beyond the vehicles’ performance to the entire ecosystem of connectivity needed to ensure safety on numerous fronts, including cybersecurity and emerging aspects of artificial intelligence. The Automated Vehicle Test Operating System and automated carrier platform they brought with them to VTTI’s facility in Blacksburg are both critical pieces of this work.

“This is actually the first time we’ve been outside of Sweden executing testing,” said Kero, adding that he hopes the test encourages future staff exchanges.

During initial development, VTTI’s automated truck was integrated with AstaZero’s testing system and the carrier platform. Once synced, the team developed a test to demonstrate the functionality on the Smart Road. The truck attempted to make a left turn through an intersection and came to a safe stop when the carrier platform automatically darted VTTI’s test dummy in front of its path. The test was repeated to evaluate different variables, without having to account for inconsistencies from human interaction.

“We are really hoping this collaboration continues in the future,” Kero said. “We want to see how we can benefit from each other’s ways for executing testing and hopefully that way also bringing up the general level of testing how to ensure vehicles deployed in the future will be safer.”