ACCorD
Corridor for New Mobility Aachen - Düsseldorf
Automated and connected driving offers great potential for increasing traffic safety and efficiency as well as social participation. However, the development of automated and connected vehicles poses immense challenges for all players. As a technologically complex system consisting of traffic, communication and IT infrastructure as well as automated and networked vehicles, it must be ensured that in real traffic, in interaction with other road users, an error-free function is always guaranteed.
With the Corridor for New Mobility Aachen - Düsseldorf, an integrated development environment is being created, incorporating existing test facilities such as the KoMoD test field in Düsseldorf or the closed CERMcity test site in Aldenhoven, to systematically test and secure automated vehicles in interaction with networked infrastructure. This is achieved by means of a time and cost-efficient tool chain and methodology, in which simulation, closed test sites and public transport test fields are linked in the best possible way. In order to be able to depict a variety of traffic scenarios, the corridor contains a highway section, an urban and a rural area.
In detail, the project is divided into the following activities:
- Establishment of a test environment which, with the help of a reference sensor system, records road users and the environment on the three test field sections ( urban, rural, highway) with high precision.
- Networking with the traffic infrastructure by means of virtual network control and networked light signal systems.
- Establishment of a central database in which all data collected is processed and stored and can be used for further research and development activities and for simulations.
- Design and implementation of a digital twin of the test field as a virtual image of the three test field sections for the execution of tests in simulation.
- Use of the test environment for the validation of automated and connected test vehicles, which are used in the corridor for the further development of automated driving functions.
All activities are integrated into public relations. After the end of the project, the infrastructure will continue to be operated and made available to interested external users.
In addition to the overall project management, the ika is responsible for the conceptual design as well as the development of the hardware and software architecture for the infrastructure-side traffic detection. On the test field Campus Melaten 46 infrastructure measuring stations, so-called ITS-Ss, are installed on the already existing lighting poles at a height of about six meters. This covers a circuit of 2.4 km, which includes Campus Boulevard, Forckenbeckstrasse and Seffenter Weg. Eleven new infrastructure measuring stations will be installed on each of the two additional test fields on the B56 in Aldenhoven and on the A44 at the Jackerath junction along a distance of 1 km. For this purpose, new masts are built at the roadside to mount the sensors, which are additionally connected to a fully self-sufficient power supply. Further technical details on our roadside infrastructure can be found here.
On the software side, the ika develops the entire algorithms for highly accurate detection and classification of road users in the sensor data. Additionally, it is also responsible for the development and setup of the IT backend for data processing and data management. The collected measurement data in the form of object lists and trajectories are both transferred in real time via V2X to test vehicles on the test fields and stored in a central database for further research purposes.
In addition to the ika, the project consortium consists of partners from research, industry and regional authorities and municipalities. These include the Institute of Highway Engineering (ISAC) of the RWTH Aachen University, the companies MOOVE, Ford, PTV, Vodafone and ZF Friedrichshafen as well as the state enterprise for road construction North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Aachen. The consortium's broad spectrum of expertise enables research topics such as automated driving, V2X communication, infrastructure measures, digital twin and sensor validation to be researched and tested in the best possible way.
Contact
Timo Woopen M.Sc.
Manager Research Area
Vehicle Intelligence & Automated Driving
+49 241 80 23549
Email
Project duration
01/2020 – 03/2022
Project partner
ika | RWTH Aachen University, ISAC | RWTH Aachen University, MOOVE GmbH, Ford-Werke GmbH, Landesbetrieb Straßenbau Nordrhein-Westfalen, PTV Planung Transport Verkehr GmbH, Stadt Aachen, Vodafone GmbH, ZF Friedrichshafen AG
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