The first construction phase of the ‘Providentia’ proving ground has officially been started. Supported by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. Under the leadership of fortiss* a consortium of technology companies (BMW, Cognition Factory, Deutsche Telekom, Elektrobit, Huawei, IPG, Rohde & Schwarz) will carry out developments and tests in the highway A9 close to Munich, Germany. The partners aim to gain insight into the interplay of various information streams in highly automated vehicles, as well as the communication and backend infrastructure.
The project sets out to obtain a lifelike simulation of real traffic situations on highways. Intelligent measuring points based on sensor fusion of radars and cameras have been installed on existing gantries along the highway A9 to achieve this goal. The data processing and forwarding is highly automatic and supports connected vehicles (C2X) based on 5G mobile technology.
In order to measure approaching and receding traffic, the busiest highway junction of Bavaria and a long stretch of road between Munich-Garching and Munich Airport will be equipped with cameras and smartmicro radars. To assure the accuracy, 25 type UMRR-0C radars with a detection range of 450m (1,476ft) each are installed stationary, supported by four additional radars within a car to feed the simulation with supplementary data. After its gathering, the processed radar data will be transferred to a digital real-time twin of the highway via the latest 5G technology.
The primary objective is to provide the driver or autonomous vehicle with a broad forward look onto the road ahead in order to allow a proper reaction to the traffic, even in difficult weather conditions.
*fortiss is the research institute of the Free State of Bavaria for software-intensive systems and services with headquarters in Munich.
