Research

Lead Researcher(s)

Sridhar Lakshmanan
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Weidong Xiang
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Michigan-Dearborn

Paul Richardson
Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Michigan-Dearborn

Project Team

Jethro Reimann
Tim Kleinow

Project Abstract

Testing of CAVs in controlled environments often involve “actors” that serve as a proxy for real-world animated objects such as Pedestrians, Scooters, Bicycles, Motorbikes, or full-sized Vehicles. This project aims to develop a robot (xBOT) that is customized for testing autonomous-connected vehicles. The xBOT platform itself is an automated-connected and modified Segway Ninebot© with an external shell that allows it to behave, and be perceived, as a free-moving Pedestrian, Scooter, Bicycle, Motorbike, or full-sized Vehicle in actual street environments.

Project Outcome

The objectives of the project are to ruggedize a Segway Ninebot© platform to provide a user-friendly interface to easily program the platform’s motion, integrate the platform into the Mcity OS, allow the platform to communicate, and be synchronized, with other static and dynamic traffic elements, and achieve all this under a complete life-cycle cost of $10,000 per robot.