Remote, Rural, and Fully Plugged In

BY ALLISON MILLS

When people imagine the peak of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, they probably picture something out of the Jetsons. But with modern automotive technology that image is too cartoonish. The innovations happening today may lead us to flying cars and other uncanny transportation the same way sci-fi cartoons envisioned tech like smart watches and household robots. But revolution can look surprisingly familiar at first.

In mobility research at Michigan Technological University, engineers, scientists and mathematicians challenge the cartoon view of what the Fourth Industrial Revolution could look like for Michigan.

Named for the Greek deities of knowledge, learning and the north wind, Michigan Tech’s Prometheus Borealis team placed fourth overall in the second round of the AutoDrive Challenge, a three-year collegiate design competition sponsored by SAE International and GM. Students from the College of Engineering, College of Computing and College of Sciences and Arts team up to tackle the software and hardware challenges of making a fully operational autonomous vehicle—a feat many will kick off in careers as well.

One of the APS LABS Chevy Bolts, a bright blue car, drives a forested Upper Peninsula road. Autonomous vehicles have to be good at recognizing the rules of the road, but what happens during a blizzard or if a moose crosses the road? Michigan Tech engineers get behind the wheel to gather data on navigating rural roads.

UNSTRUCTURED ENVIRONMENTS Unstructured environments are the gray zones of mobility. It’s where chaos enters the picture. Michigan Tech is in a remote, snowy region of the Upper Peninsula—the community regularly has to make sense of chaos and a lack of structure, and to some extent, that carries over into research. Many mobility researchers at the university specialize in studying autonomous, connected and electric vehicles in unstructured environments.

From user experience to advanced controls and AI to cybersecurity, researchers up here know that anything that works in busy urban streets or traffic-jammed highways will need to be tweaked for weather, cold, animal crossings and dirt roads if all of Michigan is going to benefit in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Advanced Power Systems Labs (APS LABS) leads the charge on this front with a fleet of autonomous vehicles, including eight Chevy Bolts. They collaborate with researchers in electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, energy policy and cognitive science to assess the technical and human aspects of driving in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Right next door, the Keweenaw Research Center maintains more than 900 acres of proving grounds. The test tracks include: ride and handling loops, a circular track, an ice rink, a snow-packed area, and a rugged off-road obstacle course.

HELLO, MICHIGAN! The Fourth Industrial Revolution will look familiar because many technological changes are happening under the hood and in code.

The College of Computing at Michigan Tech is the first of its kind in the state. Instead of operating as an insular academic unit, the College of Computing serves the entire university. It provides general education courses that build computing skills and computational thinking abilities. Additionally, to meet multidisciplinary or cross-disciplinary academic goals, the College is developing convergence programs with flexible, fluid boundaries between the College of Computing and at least one other academic unit.

What that means for the automotive industry is training students and collaborating on research projects that tackle cybersecurity, autonomy software, human factors, machine learning and all of the modeling and simulations that support the work.

Many kids first encounter computing with the “Hello, World!” program. An important step in furthering their education is getting them to think of the impact closer to home and in their futures. Run: Hello, Michigan!

Research scientists at the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) in Ann Arbor use drones to assess the cars of tomorrow and yesterday’s infrastructure that they’ll be driving on. Using quadcopters and hexacopters, the MTRI teams conduct bridge assessments and gauge traffic congestion and its potential impact on jamming connected vehicle communications.

The KRC installed a new course for military ground-vehicle testing. From steep hills to deep puddles, from rocky terrain to sand pits, the crew takes vehicles truly offroad. The concourse, part of the 900 acres of test tracks and facilities maintained by the KRC, was nicknamed the Golden Proving Grounds during rigorous tank and convoy testing last summer.

While autonomy is the talk of the town, it’s not the only innovation happening in automotive technology. The leaps and bounds of electric vehicles and the pending mass connectivity of tomorrow’s roadways are also important. Bridging the challenges in hardware and software requires an interdisciplinary approach. Electrical and computer engineers work alongside mechanical engineers in the APS LABS to run diagnostics on fuel efficiency and smart grid interfaces. IMPLEMENT AND ASSESS However, simply letting a program loose on the world, no matter its friendly greeting, is not enough. The Institute for Policy, Ethics and Culture (IPEC) is a new initiative at Michigan Tech that calls for moving thoughtfully into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Algorithms inherently oversimplify. Sometimes that’s great like favorite shows and similar ones showing up in a video streaming queue; sometimes that’s flawed like racist image processing or failed safety overrides. IPEC researchers are developing a methodological approach for intervening in the design and implementation of algorithms in a way that allows humans to contemplate ethical issues, cultural considerations and potential policy interventions.

What they call for is not doing away with selfdriving cars and dreams of flying ones, but rather asking questions to ensure that humans, not algorithms, remain in the driver’s seat.

Looking through the windshield, Michigan’s mobility is heading squarely for the Fourth Industrial Revolution turnpike. It’s a real roadway with none of the cartoon gloss of mid-century sci-fi. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still be beautiful—as well as safe and effective and uniquely Michigan.

Allison Mills is Associate Director of Research Communications at Michigan Tech. She studied geoscience as an undergrad at Northland College before getting a master’s in environmental science and natural resource journalism at the University of Montana.

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