The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded an interdisciplinary research team at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T) $550,000 to establish a Testbed of Connected Autonomous MicroTransit Vehicles.

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of a state-of-the-art autonomous testbed that is made up of three self-driving shuttles, along with the required sensing and communication networks. According to North Carolina A&T, the award will provide a “multi-user flexible and configurable research platform that enables fundamental research in development, deployment and validation of Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technologies.” The autonomous fleet will be tested at the one-mile track at the North Campus Gateway Research Park.

“The proposed testbed leverages autonomy and transportation research capabilities at A&T and enables exciting new collaborative research capabilities,” says Ali Karimoddini, Ph.D., an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and the leader of the research team. 

“Groundbreaking research on vehicles connected to a network is becoming increasingly important to the future of public transportation.”

According to North Carolina A&T, this research infrastructure will facilitate partnerships between regional and national collaborators in academia, industry and at national labs in order to advance networks of autonomous vehicles.

“The MRI award is part of the impressive portfolio of groundbreaking autonomy research being led by our College of Engineering faculty,” says Robin Coger, Ph.D., COE dean.

“I am proud of the critical roles our faculty, students and partners play in solving transportation and mobility issues for the state and the nation.”

The goal of the NSF grant is to increase research, education and training opportunities for A&T researchers, particularly women and minorities, in transportation-related research. K-12 STEM education will also be promoted during the project, through collaborations with high schools in the surrounding community.

Researchers will also work with the local community, including downtown Greensboro, for public demonstrations of the testbed in operation in the downtown area.