What is E-CAVE?
E-CAVE is an Industrial Strategy Challenge Funded (ISCF) research & development project funded to 2021, to accelerate the CAV testing portfolio in the UK through the mediation and sharing of geo-safety critical data.
What is the project about?
Research and development in CAV (Connected Autonomous Vehicles) is fragmented across a number of platforms, locations and players. Emerging autonomous systems have varied architectures and stakeholders, and opportunities for data sharing and interoperability are limited. CAV technology opportunities could be worth up to £51 billion per year by 2030, with more than 320,000 jobs created, the majority of which will be outside automotive manufacturing. In order to accelerate development and realise these potential benefits, E-CAVE will establish a neutral and interoperable framework for the efficient and effective exchange of safety-critical information relating to CAVs.
Ordnance Survey, as the National Mapping Agency, has vast experience in the creation and utilisation of geospatial data, and can draw upon its neutral and authoritative position to work alongside key industry partners to bring together the required expertise to accelerate CAV testing across the UK. Key deliverables from the project include a shared open Data Hub, cloud-based Data Exchange for UK funded Test Beds, recommendations leading to enriched specifications for the sharing of data and options for new sustainable business models to exploit value of data exchange, amongst others. Testing is not just limited to the real world, with simulation and modelling proving a powerful way to safely analyse dynamic hazard scenarios and communication requirements between vehicles and infrastructure in real time.What is TRL's role?
Ordnance Survey (OS) and the E-CAVE team are working with TRL to prioritise, supported by data and evidence, the most relevant geo-safety critical use case scenarios to address in the early stages of CAV testing. By analysing the most likely scenarios that can be helped by geospatial know-how, OS and E-CAVE are able to target and enable the testing (simulation, modelling and real-world) of incidents that will have the highest impact on safety for CAV innovators and testing, through the implementation of a Data Exchange and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) systems and communications.
TRL was commissioned to identify and assess the benefits of safety use case scenarios that would be best supported by the development and implementation of Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communications and cloud-hosted data storage. The work is in two stages, with the first stage informing the design of the second stage. The first stage has focussed on creating a prioritised list of scenarios where there is a safety case for implementing V2I communications, based on a review of literature, research projects and trials; consideration of geographic, physical and technical considerations; and accident casualty data. The second stage will focus on investigating the most promising scenarios within a virtual modelling environment to develop the understanding of data and communications requirements and is scheduled to begin in early 2019. This will inform decision making for CAV testing and future policy decisions such as regulation of vehicles and provision of V2I communications. Further work may look to build on the outcomes of stages one and two in simulated and real-world testing environments, with results shared with collaborators through the E-CAVE Data Hub.
