autoregion international - Edition 1/2020

20 The 360Lab: An Interdisciplinary Hub for Smart Mobility By 360LAB, a research group (lab) from the institute SnT (University of Luxembourg) Autonomous vehicle technology is already sending ripples through the automotive industry. And here in Luxembourg, Dr Raphael Frank, a Research Scientist at the University of Luxembourg’s Centre for Security, Reliability andTrust (SnT) is leading thedevelopment of anewresearch labentirely focusedon smartmobility, the 360Lab. “My idea from the beginning was to have a platform where different research groups could join in on projects that are interdisci- plinary and centered around smart mobil- ity. That meant bringing researchers from different backgrounds together to collab- orate on aspects of our projects,” Frank says about the new lab. “Our group now includes researchers from data science, networking, machine learning, and robot- ics. Andwe are very glad to be working with industry partners too, such as NVIDIA, who collaborates with us as part of our joint AI Lab.” The collaboration with NVIDIA has, in fact, already yielded promising results in the form of a paper on an AI technique for self-driving cars. Unique in the region, the 360Lab offers the opportunity to actually work with a real-life automated vehicle. It also offers research- ers its soon-to-be-published autonomous driving software platform, “RoboCar”. “We want our contribution to the smart mobility ecosystem to help other researchers real- ise the number of opportunities available. That’s why we will publish RoboCar as an open-source resource. We want to give more people the tools they need to begin their own research,” says Frank ADAS: Automotive Automation Already Changing the Industry The shift to automated driving will be grad- ual and steady, as each year cars are out- fitted with more sensors and systems to improve driver performance and safety. These advances, collectively known as ADAS (advanced driver-assistance sys- tems) include a number of developments from autonomous vehicle research that have already made a debut on public roads, such as adaptive cruise control, automatic parking, and much more. The 360Lab’s col- laboration with Foyer Assurances Luxem- bourg investigates how these steps toward fully automated driving are already chang- ing the automotive insurance market. François Robinet, a PhD candidate in the 360Lab, has begun data science research that may lead to new insurance offers for ADAS-equipped vehicles. “We are collect- ing driving data fromour connected vehicle and are going through it to see how these systems impact the overall risk level,” Rob- inet says, explaining the immediate impact of automated vehicle research. TERMINAL: A Smart Cross-Border Transportation Solution Luxembourg’s strong commuter culture and geographic location also make it a compelling laboratory for exploring the future challenges and opportunities of automated driving in Europe. The project TERMINAL, funded by the ERDF as part of the INTERREG V A Greater Region program, is already bringing together municipalities, researchers, and businesses from across the greater region to explore the possibility of an automated cross-border shuttle bus system. The three-year project will culmi- nate in a six-month test of an electric auto- mated minibus, which will operate a route across the German-French border in 2020. As part of the project, the 360Lab will be collecting and analysing data from a num- ber of Luxembourg’s own cross-border bus routes. “The subtle differences in road signs, infrastructure, and driving culture mean that an automated vehicle needs to be able to cope with greater diversity in the environment than otherwise necessary,” Frank explains. While smart mobility steadily gains mo- mentum around the world, the 360Lab will continue tackling the interdisciplinary re- search necessary to bring these technolo- gies to Luxembourg -- and to improve your own commute to boot. Interested in collaborating? Let’s talk: the 360Lab is always looking for new partners and projects from all points on the expand- ing automated mobility value chain. Images: © University of Luxembourg University of Luxembourg www.uni.lu S H A R E