Mcity aims to advance safety testing for new mobility era

Humanetics and the University of Michigan (U-M) are collaborating to provide access to active safety testing technologies at the university’s Mcity test facility for joint development of advanced software and robots for new mobility applications.

The tools are designed to make it easier for commercial and academic researchers to conduct comprehensive and accurate evaluations of emerging autonomous and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) technologies.

Robotic test platforms

Humanetics will provide Mcity with a variety of its robotic test platforms, which can mimic a range of road users – such as pedestrians, bicyclists, motorbikes and children. In addition, Humanetics will provide training services and TrackBase Connect, a holistic software solution to help manage complex test scenarios and co-ordinate the execution of the different vehicles, traffic lights and pedestrian platforms on the proving ground.

A major goal of the partnership is to fully integrate Humanetics’ dynamic test system into the Mcity testing environment, which will simplify test setup and support running complex tests more quickly and easily.

“The most critical part of testing automated systems is safely dealing with other people on the roads – in cars, trucks, buses, on bikes – and how they use our road network,” said Greg McGuire, Mcity managing director.

“That’s what Humanetics is good at and that’s where we need to be innovative as a state and as a country if we’re going to improve road safety more broadly.”

“The most critical part of testing automated systems is safely dealing with other people on the roads – in cars, trucks, buses, on bikes – and how they use our road network”

Last year, traffic deaths fell slightly in Michigan but remained high at more than 1,100, representing a 15 per cent increase since 2018, according to the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s latest projection for 2022 fatalities estimated that more than 42,000 people died on US roads last year, down less than one per cent compared to 2021.

Humanetics’ robots will also be incorporated into Mcity’s safety assessment programme, a two-part protocol for testing the safety of automated vehicles before widespread deployment on public roads.