Cars of the future are soon to be put through their paces at a new test track constructed by UK-based Lafarge Contracting for innovITS at the MIRA centre in Nuneaton. The cityscape circuit replicates the road network of a typical urban environment but is equipped with hi-tech telemetry, communications, monitoring and vehicle control technologies.
Cars of the future are soon to be put through their paces at a new test track constructed by UK-based Lafarge Contracting for innovITS at the MIRA centre in Nuneaton. The cityscape circuit replicates the road network of a typical urban environment but is equipped with hi-tech telemetry, communications, monitoring and vehicle control technologies.
Construction of innovITS ADVANCE City Circuit began in September 2009 and lasted six months, with a second six month spell starting last autumn once the sophisticated telecommunications had been put in place. The complex systems include multi-zoned WiFi and GSM, GPRS and 3G private stand-alone mobile telecoms networks and a WiFi mesh system that can be configured to the precise needs of the particular tests.
“This was one of the most unusual and challenging schemes we have undertaken,” said Lafarge Contracting project manager Richard Wiltshire. “We had a very tight brief from innovITS and were successful in designing the construction and materials to their requirements, both in terms of budget and timescales.
“We put in around 4km of track, installed all the drainage, power and data cabling, threaded the whole circuit with fibre optics and erected four overhead gantries, eight CCTV cameras and 12 street lights.”
InnovITS will use the circuit to trial the next generation of ultra-smart cars with advances such as on-board pedestrian detection and collision avoidance intelligence, it is expected to attract global interest.
