Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) signed a co-operation agreement with Florida Polytechnic University (Florida Poly) on the 10th of April, to join forces for future development and increasing security of automated vehicles.
Self-driving cars and other autonomous systems are one of the most paradigm-changing technological developments in today’s world. Transportation is affecting every single person and has a huge impact on economic development. There are a lot of challenges to solve and international cooperation is crucial here.
Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Self-driving vehicles and autonomous systems research group in Estonia, led by the Dr. Raivo Sell, has demonstrated its high-level competence and capability to design and develop an AV shuttle from scratch. As been focused mainly on vehicle development and implementation the next challenge is to integrate AVs to real traffic situations but in a safe and robust way.
Florida Polytechnic University (Florida Poly) Advanced Mobility Institute in the US, led by Dr. Rahul Razdan is a leading institute focused on the test and verification of autonomous vehicles. Florida Poly AMI has developed unique verification and scenario simulation tools to analyze and find edge situations in respect of safety and accident analysis. They working towards to Transportation Operating System concept which will change the whole paradigm how transportation is handled and coordinated on cloud-based solutions.
Both universities have strong research groups working on self-driving cars at a higher level.
The research collaboration will use Florida Poly’s unique capability in testing to improve the robustness of TalTech automated vehicle system. In the process, Florida Poly’s tools and methodologies will be tested in realistic environments provided by TalTech.
The cooperation agreement was signed in the Estonian Embassy in Washington where the roundtable-seminar was organized just after the signing process. There were participants from Washington DC Capital City, Georgetown Public Affairs, EU delegation of Transport and Economic development, etc. The ambassador Jonatan Vseviov emphasizes that the trans-Atlantic cooperation between Estonia and US is crucial to pursue innovation and demonstrate new transportation solutions to the public.
Before the event, TalTech team was participating in the Future Technology Summit in Washington DC where ISEAUTO small scale model got a lot of attention. ISEAUTO project leader Dr. Raivo Sell spoke in the panel session: A future perspective on connected technology, policy-making, and infrastructure development.
Several new initiatives were started in this summit, and most solid cooperation plan was agreed with Mr. Shaji Nair, Founder, and CEO of Future of Technology Summit.
We looking forward to cooperation to bring ISEAUTO research results to the Washington DC area and to Malaysia.
The cooperation has been made possible by Baltic-American Freedom Foundation grant financing TalTech researcher visit and network building to the US.