As part of the IN2Lab research project, Blickfeld is working with project partners such as Audi, Continental, the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI and the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences to develop a system that provides automated and autonomous driving with environmental information collected from the infrastructure for additional safety.
The opening of the track last week marks the start of the next phase of the project, which will focus on optimizing and validating the developed system. The 1.7-kilometer section of public road that serves as the project’s test track connects Audi’s IN-Campus technology park with the A9 freeway. Poles installed along the route have been equipped with LiDAR and radar sensors as well as cameras over the past two years.
Blickfeld has further developed its LiDAR sensors for this application to meet the requirements and, with the 3D data generated by the LiDAR, provides an important component for the detection and classification of passing vehicles as well as other road users such as pedestrians or cyclists.
The data collected by the sensor systems is transmitted to a control center (“Mission Control Center”) at the IN Campus, where the data is fused and evaluated. The information obtained this way is transmitted to automated test vehicles on the track to provide them with environmental data in addition to the information from the sensors installed in the vehicle. Thus, the project enables the safe testing of autonomous driving functions in real traffic.
Markus Blume, Bavarian Minister of Science, puts it in a nutshell at the opening ceremony at Ingolstadt Technical University: “In the highly potent industrial environment around Ingolstadt, the expertise of science and industry mesh like pistons and cylinders, and the mobility region serves as a real laboratory. These are excellent conditions for putting the mobility of the future on the road.”
In addition to Blickfeld, the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences, Audi, Continental and the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI are involved in IN2Lab.
