A video presentation – produced for innovITS by intelligent transport publisher H3B Media – provides for the first time an accessible audio-visual overview of the impressive capabilities and wide-ranging applications of the world-leading innovITS Advance test facility, which is based in the UK midlands.

The short film was shown for the first time during the Intelligent Mobility summit, hosted today in London by the UK Automotive Council. Entitled ‘innovITS Advance - From Research to Reality’ the four minute video describes the many sophisticated systems and technologies installed at innovITS Advance, which together provide a world-first testing capability for advanced transportations innovations. The film will be presented at other exhibitions and leading trade events, and is also available online on the innovITS ADVANCE YouTube Channel.
“We are particularly proud to have been able to produce this short film to share the comprehensive nature of the secure and fully controllable testing environment provided by innovITS Advance – you have to see it to believe it”, said innovITS CEO Phil Pettitt. “The 4km network of urban highways is instrumented with fully controllable systems ranging from our own private GSM, mesh and WiFi networks which, with GNSS interruption and denial systems, provide a plug and play environment that is configurable to represent almost any urban traffic situation worldwide: providing a pathway from research to reality for intelligent transport innovation.
“The facility provides a much-needed capability that will enable the automotive, telecommunications and electronics industries and highway administrations, to pull forward many new innovations that will help to shape a safer, more efficient and more environmentally sustainable future for urban transportation. This short film is intended to introduce the capabilities of innovITS Advance to a wider group of interested professionals as well as to the public at large.”
Download the press release

A technology collaboration between innovITS ADVANCE and TRL has led to the creation of an advanced form of pedestrian detection target which will help those specifying and developing automotive safety systems based on pedestrian recognition to test and certify their products in a more flexible, accurate and repeatable manner.

“Pedestrian detection systems are already increasingly being incorporated into new vehicles,” said innovITS ADVANCE business development manager Steven Warner, “but the automotive industry is largely lacking in dummy systems providing a realistic representation of human form and gait to the vehicle’s on-board sensor systems. In working with TRL to develop the new pedestrian detection certification and development capability for users of innovITS ADVANCE, we sought to combine TRL’s strong background in automotive and highway safety with the accurate vehicle positioning technology incorporated within the innovITS ADVANCE site.”

The new TRL-innovITS ADVANCE mobile pedestrian target is based around a robust, free standing dummy that provides a realistic human aspect and moves under remote control with a programmable range of speed and acceleration settings. The dummy emulates the leg motion associated with a normal walking or running gait and can currently be configured for three body sizes: a 50th percentile adult male and adult female, and a 6 year old child. Each of these body options is fully detachable and designed to minimize vehicle damage should the pedestrian detection system fail to operate, and the unit moves on an extremely low profile base unit which is invisible to vehicle systems. When combined with the unique ground truth positioning system installed at innovITS ADVANCE, the new pedestrian detection target system provides a fast, highly accurate and repeatable testing capability for this important category of automotive safety system.

“TRL has a strong history in the field of vehicle safety and understands the real world accident scenarios that are most relevant to protect against,” said Richard Cuerden, TRL technical director, vehicle safety. “By collaborating with innovITS ADVANCE we have been able to create a packaged solution that is likely to be highly attractive to those researching and developing pedestrian detection technologies, innovations and products. This is likely to range from tier 1 organizations and automakers developing and implementing new systems, to highways authorities wishing to validate new innovations in highway design.”

Read the full press release

ERTICO and ETSI are joining efforts to organize the first eCall Plugtests event at the innovITS ADVANCE testing facility, at Nuneaton, UK from the 21st to the 25th May 2012.

This interoperability event will offer participants to check their implementation during test sessions in a dedicated GSM standalone network provided by InnovITS ADVANCE.

About eCall

eCall is a European Commision initiative to save life and reduce the social burden of road accidents. eCall is an112 emergency call, triggered by the vehicle occupants or automatically, which transmits a minimum set of data (MSD) and establish a voice connection with a public safety answering point (PSAP).

See: http://icarsupport.eu/ecall/

Interoperability and eCall service harmonization are critical challenges to be taken into account for successful deployment and operation of the eCall service.

Read this interesting article about ITS interoperability on the ERTICO website.

See the original article on the ETSI website.