As part of the 5G CAL project, the StreetDrone team conducted two different testing activities at the Nissan plant in Sunderland over a two week period in July.
Teleoperation
Between 5th and 9th July, the StreetDrone team tested the 5G internet connection via the masts and base stations installed around the Nissan site, alongside partners in the 5G CAL project.
The team consists of: Sunderland City Council, North East Automotive Alliance, StreetDrone, Perform Green, Vantec Coventry University, Newcastle University and Connected Places Catapult, with Nissan, Terberg and Fergusson as contributors.
During the testing activities, the StreetDrone e-NV200 test mule was used to connect to the 5G network while the team drove the vehicle around the site.
Conducted in collaboration with the 5G CAL project partner ‘Perform Green’, the purpose of this testing activity was to measure the quality of the 5G connection, including signal strength, connection speed, band width, end-to-end latency and other metrics, which the team streamed live from a meeting room.
Self-driving software
The following week, the StreetDrone team tested the self-driving software performance in a simulation using the autonomous e-NV200.
In collaboration with IPG Automotive, we connected the real-world vehicle to the virtual world, using the vehicle-in-the-loop technology.
This activity was part of early testing scenarios, allowing the physical vehicle to be subjected to a virtual dangerous situation while driving in a safe skid pad area.
By running the simulation software on the compute in the vehicle, the team were able to monitor the vehicle’s reaction in a dangerous scenario, as seen in the side-by-side videos.
The team will be back at the Nissan plant in Sunderland to continue testing using the autonomous StreetDrone e-NV200 before moving on to live test with the Terberg logistics vehicle in 2022.
