We are pleased to announce that EcoCAR teams will be participating in the EcoCAR Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) Testing Event at the Transportation Research Center (TRC) during the second and third weekends in March. This event will allow teams to test and refine their CAV systems on their 2019 Chevrolet Blazers. Teams will have the opportunity test run competition events such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) enabled energy consumption and the Connected Mobility Challenge.
TRC will be providing their world-class vehicle testing facilities to participating EcoCAR students. TRC is North America’s most comprehensive independent automotive test center and proving ground. TRC provides a full range of testing, validation and research opportunities for the world’s innovators in automotive and mobility technologies. On 4,500 acres, TRC operates 24/7/359 offering numerous facilities including a 7.5-mile high-speed test track, a 50-acre vehicle dynamics area, 9,000-foot skid pad, durability and performance driving areas. TRC also boasts emissions, static and crash laboratories on site.
“We’re excited to host the innovators of the future at the upcoming EcoCAR CAV Event,” said TRC President and CEO Brett Roubinek. “This is an exciting time in the history of automotive engineering, and these student teams will have the opportunity to use the same testing complex that innovators across the world have used over the past 50 years to evaluate the safety and performance of their vehicles. We know they will be impressed, and we hope they will even consider joining our team down the road to help shape the future of transportation.”
The teams will take advantage of testing their Blazers at this world-class facility. For ACC enabled energy consumption testing, the team vehicles will follow Argonne’s automated drive cycle following Blazer. This will enable teams to gain more of an understanding of the energy consumption of their vehicle and performance of ACC. Testing for the Connected Mobility Challenge will be done at a connected signalized intersection with real-time time Signal Phase and Timing (SPaT)/MAP information. The vehicles will intelligently navigate the intersection by using the SPaT/MAP information. This will allow teams to verify functionality of Vehicle to Everything (V2X) systems on board. This testing will better prepare teams to take on the scored dynamic vehicle events at the Year 4 Competition.
“I am excited that our team will be able to visit the TRC testing facility to test our Blazers ahead of the year-end competition,” said Zachary Flanigan, WVU EcoCAR CAV Team Co-lead. “I am looking forward to testing our team-defined V2X control algorithm with our ACC algorithm to see if our Blazer will make the right decision before reaching an intersection,” he added.
Follow along over the next few weeks as we highlight team updates and achievements from the EcoCAR CAV Event at TRC.
