Debrecen4U January 14, 2025

University of Debrecen experts work in international cooperation for safer transport

Road safety, the efficiency of transport networks, and the avoidance of accidents and traffic congestion can also be helped by the digital twin framework, which is being developed by experts from the University of Debrecen’s Faculty of Informatics in collaboration with the University of Florida and the University of Seoul.

The scientific project, called Fraternity, is supported by the HU-rizont programme with HUF 400 million.

In mid-November, Minister for Culture and Innovation Balázs Hankó announced that the HU-rizont programme will support 30 proposals with HUF 12 billion, including the Fraternity cooperative environment for autonomous vehicle testing developed by the Faculty of Informatics  at the University of Debrecen.

One of the elements of this is the Fraternity cooperative environment for testing autonomous vehicles project, developed by the Faculty of Informatics of the University of Debrecen.

Dean of the Faculty of Informatics, the technical leader of the development András Hajdu told hirek.unideb.hu that the transmission of real-time information and driving messages measured in intelligent transport systems (ITS) to vehicles can significantly improve safe and dynamic transport.

This project can be seen as a gap-filler because there are currently no platforms to test ITS solutions based on collective collaboration for automated vehicles, intelligent transport systems.

“In practice, we want to develop a digital framework that would allow a scalable test environment for car users and ITS solutions. This will allow any new traffic situation to be modelled, and the results will be used to further develop algorithms for autonomous vehicles, which will allow intelligent systems to work more reliably,” the Head of the Faculty said.

András Hajdu noted that this framework could be applied to both urban and expressway traffic, testing solutions to avoid major congestion in time, and to give more attention to pedestrians, scooters and cyclists. The faculty not only offers a test environment for ITS sensors, but will also be able to produce its own test results based on data and lidar data through the autonomous vehicle available to the faculty, so the framework can also be used locally.

“There is a particular vehicle that can do a lot, the software for which is being updated by the car manufacturer. The framework will be of interest to those who are developing autonomous driving and want to model as many different traffic situations as possible to create smarter vehicles, in order to make efficient software updates and thus safer driving. Our platform will initially use a generic, formal programming language, but later on it will be able to describe everything that is needed, so any traffic scenario can be tested,” the Dean explained.

Another leading expert of the project, Do Van Tien, a scientific advisor at the University of Debrecen’s Faculty of Informatics, says that it may soon be possible for smart software companies to carry out the necessary tests in the Faculty’s framework. 

“Many industrial companies are working on innovative solutions to support intelligent transport, and manufacturers are integrating this software into autonomous vehicles. In all cases, these are complete tools that can be used with high efficiency and safety. One of the goals of our project is to reduce costs, which will encourage developers to work together. We are not looking to invent the Spanish wax, but rather to offer ways to use existing information processing software more accurately and safely. This would be to the benefit of transport users,” he highlighted.

Two foreign partners are working with the Faculty of Informatics on the project. The first is the University of Florida, which is ranked among the top five public universities and has a strong profile in artificial intelligence, algorithm development, reinforcement learning and the application of large language models. The faculty’s other partner is Seoul University, which has extensive experience in developing intelligent transport software, coordinating new technologies, and has close links with the Hungarian Public Roads Nonprofit Ltd.

Source and photo credit:dehir.hu