Amey, together with RACE, have secured funding from Innovate UK, to build a prototype autonomous vehicle and test data collected from its sensors, which will ultimately transform current urban services and deliver safety benefits.

Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE) is part of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. As part of a national laboratory and as a centre of excellence in robotics and autonomous (RAS) systems RACE is committed to supporting the emergence of autonomous vehicles (AV) and helping to capture the industrial and wider economic benefits of the UK developing a globally leading position in this strategically important area.

The vehicle will be built as part of The Connected Autonomous Sensing Service Delivery Vehicles (CASS-DV) study and will undertake tasks currently completed manually such as grass cutting and street cleaning.

 The vehicle will simultaneously provide real time data through sensors on the surrounding environment that it drives around including: the condition of street furniture, bridges or even the road surface. Other information which could be gathered from sensors includes environmental factors such as air quality and vegetation growth.

If the 15 month CASS-DV study is successful, it could see autonomous vehicles delivering a whole range of urban maintenance activities across the UK and will remove risk and improve the safety of our people completing tasks in high risk areas.

Rick Robinson Amey’s Director of Technology said:

“We believe that the pioneering study will not only help to transform the quality and quantity of data on road conditions, but will provide cost efficiencies to our clients as well as delivering real improvements in safety and service quality.”

The vehicles will be tested at Culhum Science Centre in Oxfordshire which is set to become a major test and validation site for the vehicles. RACE’s knowledge and network of autonomous vehicle providers will form the basis for the development of the CASS-DV study. RACE is also able to contribute its strengths in engineering and software development through their centre of excellence in robotics and autonomous systems.

RACE is planning to make use of its experience of hosting AV trials as part of ambitious development plans relating to the Culham site and adjoining (existing and planned) communities.

The organisation is already working closely with local councils and the Oxfordshire LEP with a shared vision of Culham as the hub around which the ideas can coalesce.

Innovate UK Chief Executive Ruth McKernan added:

“These successful industry-led R&D projects will further spearhead UK development of low emission, and connected and autonomous vehicle technology, building on our world-leading research and innovation capability in this area and the significant strength of UK businesses large and small in this field.”