MRI: Acquisition of Autonomous Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle Platform for Multidisciplinary Research and Education at the University of Michigan-Dearborn

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Dearborn, Dearborn MI

Investigators

Abstract

This NSF MRI project aims to acquire a high-performance autonomous electric vehicle platform with a sensor suite for research and education to advance fundamental science and engineering research and education. The intellectual merits of the project include the following. The platform will accelerate the development of critical algorithms in machine learning and analysis methods tailored to the safety and stability of autonomous vehicles while enabling transformative research on cybersecurity by providing real-world scenarios. Research on energy systems for advanced mobility will also be able to be extended and further explored. The broader impacts of the project entail the following. The platform will support undergraduate and graduate students, as well as post-doctoral fellows by offering research training opportunities through experiential learning with a programmable electric vehicle. The University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-D) is located in the Metro-Detroit area, the home to the “Big Three” (GM, Ford, and Chrysler), and automotive suppliers. The U.S. automotive and advanced mobility industries need more skilled and knowledgeable scientists and engineers who are ready for new technologies such as intelligent systems powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, energy and power systems, cybersecurity, and human-vehicle interfaces. The project will help in contributing to the high demand for skilled workers from the advanced mobility industry with the acquired instrument. The platform will be crucial research instrumentation to significantly enhance interdisciplinary research and education at UM-D in several research activities, including embodied cognitive vehicle, in-vehicular network security, energy consumption, environmental perception, cybersecurity, and driver behavior analyses in electric and advanced mobilities. The instrument will also substantially improve undergraduate and graduate research training in the electrical, computer, robotics, mechanical, and industrial engineering departments at UM-D. Active research is going on in the fields of automotive, robotics, cybersecurity, energy systems, and human-vehicle interface at UM-D. The proposed platform will enable collaborative research in a realistic environment with a full-scale programmable vehicle in the aforementioned emerging research areas. The project team will work on ten transformative research topics to be enabled by the platform that will substantially improve the current research and experimentation capabilities at UM-D. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.