On Sunday, May 15, 2011 in Helmond, The Netherlands has finished first Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) event in which took part team Latvia which consisted of 7 Institute of Electronics and Computer Science employees – Leo Selavo, Andris Gordjusins, Georgijs Kanonirs, Vadims Kurmis, Artis Mednis, Girts Strazdins and Reinholds Zviedris.
Challenge was organized during Automotive Week 2011 and in total 9 teams took part in it. Team Latvia car were fitted with computer controlled accelerator and brake control, wireless 802.11p communications, inertial navigation system and other modern transportation technologies that were developed and adopted in EDI thanks to support from State Research Programm IMIS, ESF co-funded Activity 1.1.1.2 project and University of Latvia.
Best results were presented by German team AnnieWay from The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. For team Latvia it was first time in such a challenge and they received acknowledgements from event organizers and other teams.
Event organizers – TNO – says, that GCDC proved that cooperative mobility technology works to decrease trafic jams and helps finding inovative solutions for better mobility. “In brief, we are positive and that means we certainly intend to carry on,” says Nico Zornig, Mobility Business Line Manager at TNO.
Eleven teams took part in the GCDC 2011, including three from the Netherlands (TU Eindhoven, TU Delft / Applied Science University of Arnhem and Nijmegen, and Fontys Hogescholen / University of Twente / Waterloo University [Canada]), three from Sweden and one each from Germany, Spain, Latvia, Turkey / United States (Ohio State University) and England. Two teams took part with a truck. The vehicles were given tasks for both urban and highway situations. The winner was determined following a series of contests and positional changes among the vehicles. “So the vehicle that responded quickest to the shockwave and had the least amount of road space necessary to do so was the winner,” explains Bastiaan Krosse, Senior Project Manager for Mobility at TNO.
More information about GCDC: http://www.gcdc.net/
Some videos: – One week before the challenge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmRifLzw8iA
– NTD Television about GCDC event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hZ4X81IrCY
