On 30 January, PoDIUM concluded its series of webinars highlighting the work done in its Living Labs in Spain, Germany, and Italy. This last webinar put the Italian Living Lab in the spotlight, showcasing its innovative approaches to improving road safety and emergency response.
Guido Gavilanes (LINKS), opened the webinar by presenting an overview of PoDIUM’s platform architecture and introducing the Italian Living Lab and its two main use cases. The first use case is set in an urban environment in Turin, focusing on protecting vulnerable road users by coordinating connected vehicles at intersections, while the second use case focuses on risk management in a tunnel of the A22 highway. He highlighted the importance of distinguishing between trust and truthfulness in data: trust refers to the reliability the data source; truthfulness concerns the accuracy of the information provided, both crucial features in future Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) applications.
Fabrizio Gatti (TIM) focused on the 5G network and TIM’s contributions to the Living Lab through 5G-enabled Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication. The Living Lab’s communication architecture, organised on three levels, supports interactions between personal, vehicular, and infrastructure-based devices. TIM’s Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) platform comprises a Telco Edge Node for fast data routing and a Service Edge Node for hosting applications. A central Message Broker further manages CV2X applications and geo-routing within the Living Lab for efficient message exchange between applications and communication partners.
Alessio Coroneo (SWARCO) introduced the VIMA (VRU-aware Intersection Movement Assistance) service designed to enhance pedestrian safety at intersections, especially in environments with autonomous vehicles. VIMA uses a three-step process: data acquisition and mapping, risk assessment, and alert generation. By incorporating data from vehicles, pedestrians, and smart sensors via a digital twin, the system assesses collision risks. In the event of a detected risk, an In-Vehicle Information Message is sent to alert vehicles, which is particularly crucial in areas like hospital crossings to ensure fast reaction times.
Filippo Visintainer (Stellantis-CRF) presented V2X in the context of Use Case 4 “Trusted Cooperative Perception for Intersection Manoeuvre Assistance’. In the use case, V2X is used as an additional sensor improving the detection of vulnerable road users at intersections. Tested in Turin with a prototype vehicle, the approach relies on bidirectional data exchange through 5G and short-range communication. While early results indicate the potential to issue preventive warnings and assist automated vehicles safely through intersections, improvements in positioning accuracy and latency are expected to meet the required performance.
Guido Gavilanes then showcased a 5G smartphone app for pedestrians and cyclists. The application uses precise positioning hardware and allows users to publish their planned routes, which assists in risk calculations alongside live traffic information. For trusted computing, onboard units use a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to ensure system integrity, with Links’ EMBRAVE framework managing remote attestation via agents and network-edge verifiers.
Paolo Faccin (Autostrada del Brennero) introduced Use Case 5 “Risk Management in a Highway Tunnel”, which focuses on improving safety in highway tunnels. The use case aims to assess real-time risk levels in tunnels and provide timely guidance to automated vehicles. It addresses the challenges of reduced visibility and GPS limitations in tunnels by using sensors, cameras, and AI-based algorithms for enhanced position accuracy and risk assessment.
Filippo Visintainer concluded with a discussion of the role of V2X technologies in supporting automated driving even in tunnels and places where GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) signals are unavailable. For this purpose, the vehicle prototypes of PoDIUM’s Use Case 5 have a positioning system that enables cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) as well as an extended perception for SAE Level 4 automation in both open sky and tunnels. Although initial tests show the system maintains Level 4 automated driving in tunnels as long as cooperative vehicles remain in ”car following” condition, further optimisation is needed in longer tunnels to improve performance.
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