World's first ITS specific test track takes shape

A milestone was marked this month with the completion of the road network that will form the basis of innovITS ADVANCE – the world’s first purpose-built facility for the development, testing and validation of ITS products and services.

The new facility is the result of collaboration between innovITS, MIRA and TRL, and is being constructed at the Nuneaton headquarters site of MIRA in the UK. When fully commissioned with its private GSM mobile communications and WiFi networks, this complex system of roads and junctions, which includes multi-lane highways and intersections, will become in effect a virtual city in which automakers, telecoms companies and highway operators will be able to develop, test and validate the next generation of ITS innovations.

By providing such an environment in which ITS technology, products and services can be tested in a highly controlled and completely safe manner, innovITS ADVANCE aims to enable the more rapid introduction of technologies that will deliver improved road space utilization, reduced carbon emissions, smoother journeys and improved road safety.

Work is now progressing on the installation of the advanced telecommunications and web-enabled control systems which will allow the center’s customers to configure the environment to replicate an extremely wide range of ITS scenarios, including the precise specification of road conditions and telecoms access and denial. With work progressing, the center is scheduled to welcome its first customers in May 2010.

“Construction of the substantial road network of the innovITS ADVANCE ‘city circuit’ has been successfully completed in under six months and with only very minor delays, despite taking place through one of the coldest UK winters for over 30 years,” said innovITS ADVANCE business development manager Roger Wilson.

“We are already talking to a wide range of customers and expect to be welcoming them to innovITS ADVANCE very soon. Once operational, I believe that this important new facility will play a major role in enabling the creation of a new generation of ITS technologies, products and services delivering a safer, more fuel-efficient and sustainable future for road transportation.”
 

23 April 2010