About innovITS ADVANCE

innovITS ADVANCE

innovITS ADVANCE is a futuristic research and development centre to be based in the UK. The new facility will enable customers from the telecommunications, automotive and electronics industries, as well as highways authorities and operators, to develop, test and validate future transport technologies in a safe highly controlled environment.

Co-operative safety, efficiency and mobility

By facilitating innovation in cooperative vehicle, highway and telecommunications technologies, innovITS ADVANCE aims to reduce accidents, improve environmental efficiency and help to alleviate traffic congestion through the efficient and intelligent interaction of vehicles and highway infrastructure.

Collaboration

The new R&D centre is the result of collaboration between innovITS, MIRA and TRL funded by Advantage West Midlands. The team behind innovITS ADVANCE brings together skills spanning the automotive, telecoms, ITS and highways sectors and this is reflected in the facility's state of the art design.

innovITS

innovITS is the UK centre for excellence in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and technologies for sustainable mobility. innovITS acts as a catalyst for deployment and exploitation of technologies for sustainable mobility to strengthen UK capabilities across a range of industries including automotive, telecommunications and transport operations and infrastructure.

MIRA

MIRA Ltd, one of the world’s leading automotive test and development organisations, will host the new centre at its headquarters in Warwickshire. MIRA is recognised as a leading independent product engineering, testing, consultancy and certification organisation.

TRL

TRL is the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory and is an internationally recognised centre of excellence providing world-class research, consultancy, testing and certification for all aspects of transport.

Advantage West Midlands

Advantage West Midlands is the regional development agency (RDA) for the West Midlands, one of nine RDAs in England established to transform the English regions through sustainable economic development. Advantage West Midlands is providing  funding for the first phase of the innovITS ADVANCE Project, the City Circuit.

Facilities

The entire innovITS ADVANCE project represents an investment of approximately €30m over five phases, with the city circuit phase opening in Spring 2010.

Test and demonstration

The innovITS ADVANCE city test circuit will be comprehensively instrumented with fully integrated telecommunications networks including GSM & Wi-Fi, and in the near future, roadside beacons and monitoring systems such as inductive loops as well accurate position monitoring technologies including differential GPS, Ground Truth and Galileo based systems.

All telecommunications and electronic monitoring systems can be controlled precisely and individually by customers allowing them to thoroughly test new telematics-based innovations by replicating any potential operating environment that may be encountered in real-world application.

For further information on the technical specification please contact Roger Wilson on +44 (0)7872 308647

Safety

The facility will provide a robust, highly controllable and safe testing environment. As such it will enable telecommunications operators, electronics companies, automakers, highways operators and other key ITS stakeholders to test and develop new ITS systems and technologies in a purpose-built facility; accelerating their path to market and providing considerable benefits for business, transport users as well as the public at large.

City Circuit

The first phase of development is the construction of a 'city' circuit. This extensive network of roads, traffic islands, roundabouts and controlled intersections will enable engineers to replicate the challenges of almost any European urban environment.

Despite the significant size of innovITS ADVANCE (the 'city' circuit alone will be based on a footprint of approximately 120,000 square metres) the entire facility will be encompassed within the existing envelope of the MIRA site.

Opening in Spring 2010 further information about the specification can be obtained by contacting Roger Wilson on +44 (0) 7872 308647

Connecting vehicles, highways and telecommunications

Connecting vehicles, highways and telecommunications is widely seen as the key to ensuring a safe, efficient, environmentally sustainable and affordable road transport system for the future.

CVIS, V2V, V2I

Co-operative Vehicle Highway Systems (CVIS) are in development around the world and innovITS ADVANCE offers the opportunity for testing these systems in a safe and controlled environment.

Co-operative systems involve communications between vehicles and the infrastructure (V2I) and to other vehicles (V2V). innovITS ADVANCE has the facility to support these technologies and to integrate them with monitoring systems and other equipment.

Telematics and ITS

The development and implementation telematics products and systems based on ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) technologies cuts across many long-standing industrial and governmental boundaries, requiring parallel innovations in the areas of telecommunications networks, roadside infrastructure, traffic management and on-board vehicle electronics monitoring and control systems. innovITS ADVANCE offers the ability to replicate a wide range of real-world traffic scenarios any of which may be subjected to numerous traffic control systems and strategies.

An International Centre

Our ultimate aim is that innovITS ADVANCE will become the international centre for connecting vehicles, highways and telecommunications; facilitating the more rapid introduction of intelligent transport technologies, with considerable benefits for industry and for society as a whole.

innovITS ADVANCE is an exciting development not only for the collaborating organisations in this project but also its potential customers in the telecommunications, electronics and automotive industries, as well as among highways authorities and operators throughout Europe.

In creating the world’s first purpose built single site ITS test track, innovITS ADVANCE will help bring ITS innovation to reality without the profound cost, technical, legal and moral obstacles that hold back many new and extremely promising ITS concepts.