Oxford University Innovation spinout Oxbotica to provide control systems for UK’s first driverless car
12th February 2015
Oxbotica - spun out in late 2014 from the University of Oxford's Mobile Robotics Group - will provide control systems for 40 autonomous pods as part of a multi-million pound driverless car challenge.
UK Business Secretary Vince Cable and Transport Minister Claire Perry officially launched the Government’s ‘Introducing Driverless Cars’ competition, aimed at establishing the UK as the global hub for the R&D and integration of driverless vehicles and associated technologies.
UK Autodrive is one of three projects that will see trials of driverless cars taking place over the next few years in Milton Keynes, Coventry, Greenwich and Bristol. The UK Autodrive consortium comprises the UK’s leading high tech and automotive businesses, academic institutes and forward-thinking local authorities, and will develop autonomous vehicle technologies and integrate driverless vehicles into existing urban environment in a £20m, three-year programme
Oxbotica is a specialist provider of autonomous control system technologies and a recent spin-out from Oxford University’s Mobile Robotics Group and Oxford University Innovation, the University’s technology commercialisation company. Oxbotica will be a pivotal contributor in the project and will develop the autonomous control systems that enable real-world operation of driverless vehicles in urban and pedestrianised areas around Milton Keynes.
A key element of the UK Autodrive project is the implementation of a Low-Speed Autonomous Transport System (L-SATS), which will see 40 self-driving pods carrying members of the public on routes around Milton Keynes city centre, linking in to key transportation hubs and car parks and travelling through pedestrianised areas. Trials will explore the opportunities and challenges of using L-SATS fleet to provide a working public transport system. Oxbotica will play a key part in the project and will develop and provide the entire autonomous control system and sensor sub-system to the L-SATS pods.
Dr Graeme Smith, Chief Executive of Oxbotica said, “Oxbotica is all about mobile autonomy. Our technology enables robots and autonomous systems to understand their environment and navigate safely through a pedestrianised environment. In this application Oxbotica will provide the smart software that enables the pod to understand where it is, how to navigate, and how to operate in challenging urban environments including obstacles, pedestrians and cyclists. The L-SATS project will provide the first commercial scale demonstration of a solution for last-mile urban mobility and will have global significance, positioning the UK – and Oxbotica – at the very forefront of this society-changing technology”
Professor Paul Newman, Oxbotica co-founder said: “It’s important that the UK invests not only in its research institutions and the technology that underpins autonomous self-driving vehicles but also that it supports and builds companies that can exploit and deliver this technology to the market. It’s time to transition the UK’s leading edge intellectual property in mobile autonomy from our research institutions to global markets in a coherent and integrated fashion. We created Oxbotica to accelerate this transition, and we are now in a superb position to deliver world leading autonomy tech into the L-SATS project, which will be the first of its kind to demonstrate such a substantial implementation of real autonomy.”
Professor Ingmar Posner, Oxbotica co-founder said: “Our plan with the practical demonstration phases of L-SATS is to demonstrate autonomous pods operating in a public environment, and to build up to a point where all road users, as well as legislators, the police and insurance companies, are confident about how self-driving pods and autonomous cars can operate safely on roads and in pedestrianised environments.”
For further information, please visit the Oxbotica website: http://www.oxbotica.com/
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