Teaching, development and research at VŠB – Technical University Ostrava: We help develop cars that listen

7/9/2022 |Articles are machine translated

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of the Technical University of Ostrava has been running a study programme focused on automotive electronics for twelve years. The local development team, which also includes students, works on a number of projects related primarily to autonomous driving. According to Associate Professor Petr Šimoník, Vice Dean for Cooperation with Industry, the most advanced is the development of the third generation of the Drive-by-Wire system, on which they are collaborating with Valeo.

How has teaching at your faculty changed recently in relation to new trends in the automotive industry?

12 years ago, we started to perceive that the integration of electronics in cars was growing, and we established the Automotive Electronics study programme, which was transformed into the Automotive Electronic Systems study programme five years ago. As the sector has evolved, the curriculum has seen the integration of specialist segments such as Functional Safety, Automotive Spice, Autonomous Driving Sensors and Strategies, e-mobility, HIL Simulation and Testing and others. We focus on both hardware and software solutions. We interact with a number of mainly Tier 1 companies to give us an indication of where development is going and what learning resources make sense to use. So together we are creating the curriculum within this degree programme.

Fundamental to the development of the degree programme and synergistic research activities is the continued support of the faculty and university management, and in addition the professional quality and personal commitment of my closest collaborators, Tomáš Mrovec, Tomáš Klein and Tomáš Harach, to whom I owe a great deal of gratitude for the level we are at. However, the list of important teaching and research colleagues would be much longer. We follow trends and gradually expand our professional focus for teaching, development and research of automotive electronic systems.

Doc. Ing. Petr Šimoník, Ph.D. has been the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics at VŠB – Technical University Ostrava since September 2017. Pictured here in one of the laboratories for testing automotive electronics. | Photo: author’s archive

Does this mean that the content of the study programme changes, for example, every year?

It depends on each teacher how far he or she is willing to make adjustments in the program. We can change the curriculum content of each course by 30 per cent every year without having to go through a complicated administrative approval process. And in most cases, that happens to some extent. Educators want to talk about the most current issues.

Are the educators in this field of study mostly practitioners?

They are educators and scientists with a connection to the practice of the auto industry. That’s how we transformed the curriculum five years ago. The experience of people who are actively working on commercial projects and are part of the application sphere, or are repeatedly involved as scientists in the development of some systems for industrial partners in this field, is important to us. I am the guarantor of the study programme and I often ask students how satisfied they are with the teaching of a particular lecturer. And I often feel like talking to them myself.

The new study content has certainly created the need for new laboratories and new technical equipment. How is your faculty doing in this regard?

We already rebuilt two laboratories 12 years ago to teach automotive electronics, diagnostics and vehicle testing. With the other projects we got, funding came in to upgrade the labs and their equipment. When the new building of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science was built, we were already able to redesign the lab areas there to our liking. But the most important step came two years ago, when a brand new industrial testbed was built with the Automotive Lab. In creating it, we applied all of our past experiences and we communicated a lot with Tier 1 companies because we want them to work with us on project-based learning, where students are involved in solving projects. We are continuously investing in the labs and beyond.

What equipment is the Automotive Lab equipped with?

The latest infrastructure we have completed includes a section where we can perform driving integration tests of electric vehicles even in their regenerative mode. We have a virtual vehicle development area, where there are several stations with virtual programmable control systems, and in another part we provide training on what we call Hardware in the Loop test systems, which we are developing in collaboration with the application industry for training, and more. We equip our labs to meet the needs for the development of 2030+ automotive platforms. This means a concept using a high-performance computer with the ability to transfer data to a computing cloud where advanced data processing takes place and the data is then transferred back to the car, for example using 5G networks.

We are developing our own concepts – for example, predicting faults before they happen. We have developed our own carsharing platform with the ability to analyse traffic data and behavioural analysis of drivers. In collaboration with international researchers, we are developing deep machine learning applications to replace sensor signals when they fail, a critical area of expertise for autonomous vehicles. We are presenting our concepts to representatives of the application sphere and are working to publish our results in scientific journals, where, paradoxically, we still have considerable reserves.

The equipment in the laboratories is constantly being improved to meet the needs for the development of the 2030+ automotive platforms. | Photo: VŠB-TUO

How many students apply for the Automotive Electronic Systems course?

In recent years it has been approximately 60 to 70 per year. No more than half of them make it to the second year.

Is it that demanding?

For years, we have been focusing mainly on automotive technicians, i.e. graduates of apprenticeship courses with a high school diploma. Gradually, we’re focusing more on talented high school graduates. Although they have a bit of a problem with their qualifications in the first and second year, they are used to learning more extensively and then they manage their studies better. We now want to focus on the best and have something to offer them in project-oriented learning. Since last year we have been organising project days with secondary schools, inviting students to join us and staying in touch with those who are most interested.

We will never provide mass teaching of car electronics. For us, 30 students in one year is optimal, so 150 in the whole bachelor’s and master’s programme combined. This is partly because we have to divide the students into groups of ten for safety reasons when working in the labs, and this is also most appropriate for us to be able to give them quality attention.

The study programme Automotive Electronic Systems has been running for 12 years, so many students have already found a job in practice. Do you have a rough idea where?

We meet them, because they come back to us relatively often. Their employers use these former graduates as contact persons, so they cooperate with us or even give lectures. This is useful for us because we have access to information about where developments are going.

If I were to name representatives from the application sector with whom we discuss the future, they include ŠKODA AUTO, HELLA AUTOTECHNIK NOVA, Valeo, Vitesco Technologies, Porsche Engineering Services and Varroc Lighting Systems. We are now preparing an interesting cooperation with TATRA TRUCKS. In our region, these companies mostly have their own development capacities and our graduates work there.

Commercial development is also taking place at your faculty. Which company are you cooperating with and what is it about?

Our development team is relatively small, with 15 people, including students. You can’t work for many companies with that number. We started doing major development research and innovation projects right away with the transformation of the curriculum five years ago, first with a German company. Thanks to good relations with the director of Valeo, Leoš Dvořák, and especially his trust, we then received an offer and financial support for long-term cooperation in the form of contract research.

We are currently working together on an external microcomputer system that is connected to several buses in the vehicle and provides complete control of the car. This is a Drive-by-Wire system, which is a driving concept where the driver does not control the vehicle directly, but through a computer with a sensor system that has full control of the vehicle in both longitudinal and lateral directions, including shifting and emergency braking. Valeo is using this to develop driver assistance systems such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping and more. In addition, using the developed technology, we are, for example, jointly involved in testing at the Milovice proving ground, where we are investigating driver reactions during failures of autonomous driving modes.

Gradually, thanks to their personal approach, we have brought the level of cooperation to several parallel projects with Valeo development experts Jan Frydrýšek and Ondřej Kozák, and we are currently preparing a vision for three years ahead. For example, we intend to commercialize the proof of concept of the Drive-by-Wire system, which we are going to deliver commercially together with Valeo for their test cars in Germany and Japan.

What cars do you use for testing?

We use ŠKODA AUTO and now VW cars, which allow such control thanks to sophisticated systems. The implication is that these cars essentially enable autonomous driving.

As far as I know, you are also working with ŠKODA AUTO on some developments. Does it also involve Drive-by-Wire?

Yes, this cooperation is also essential for us because of their support for cooperation with universities. ŠKODA AUTO designed the Follow the Vehicle assistance system and we are developing it at VŠB-TUO as part of a wider team. One car drives with a driver, the other without, and the Drive-by-Wire interface is used to control the driverless car. We monitor the position of the vehicle and its surroundings, collect data, evaluate it and, thanks to the C2C communication application, perform real-time control of the vehicle, including an emergency stop strategy.

What about your own development? Do you have the time and resources?

In terms of funding for research and development, we can of course draw on programmes from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. When we come to the conclusion that something makes sense to develop further, we apply for a grant and offer the results of the work to someone. It also happens that representatives of the automotive industry approach us themselves after we publish or otherwise publicly present our results.

Now, for example, under the leadership of Professor Snášel, who is currently the rector of VŠB-TUO, we are cooperating with an English university on improving an object recognition system, which is again related to autonomous driving. I will give an example. We drive an autonomous vehicle on our university campus and we accidentally discovered that the system recognises a plastic concrete flowerpot as an animal. This may be a weak point in the camera software, and development here makes sense.

Or imagine that a hacker starts “tricking” a false image in front of your vehicle to make the car change direction. The system needs to detect that too. To this end, we have submitted a project in consortium with Czech and Korean partners that will focus on cyber security from the perspective of deception. The task of our team is to develop a test car for this purpose.

As far as our own activities are concerned, it is also worth mentioning the development of so-called Automated Guided Vehicles, which have applications in industrial logistics.

Electric cars are used on campus. | Photo: VŠB-TUO

What is your biggest success so far? What have you managed to put into practice?

We mainly work on partial things, which are often part of a specific control unit or a specific software solution. One of the most interesting and certainly the most advanced things we are currently working on is undoubtedly the Drive-by-Wire system, which we are working on with Valeo. And this company wants to be the supplier of these test vehicles “that listen”. When any company orders such a vehicle, we will supply the interface to it.

For the purpose of this cooperation, a spin-off company will be established at VŠB-TUO in September this year. The role of my team at the university will continue to be in teaching and research, but we will commercialise the research results as a spin-off company of the university.

Do you keep the results of your development patented?

Right now we are in the process of patenting for the first time a technology we are working on with HELLOU, which relates to headlight testing. We are then preparing to patent the third generation of Drive-by-Wire, which we are now starting to develop.

Most of your development work in the laboratories relates to autonomous driving. What do you see as the future of autonomous cars becoming a reality on a wider scale?

It’s certainly good that assistance systems are being developed to provide comfort and safety, it makes sense. As for fully autonomous driving, there are still a number of questions. Among other things, we have also recently tested on a polygon the reactions of drivers who are hands off, eyes off and brain off. A person who was not engaged in driving and was reading the designated text on top of that then had a big problem taking over the wheel. If you are just hands off and eyes off, you are still somehow peripherally observing everything, but if your brain is focused on another specific task, it is very dangerous. The results are being prepared for publication in a scientific journal.

As I said, some of today’s vehicles actually already allow autonomous driving, but the legislation does not allow it and, frankly, the infrastructure is not there. And, as tests have shown, there can be a problem with the long-term use of assistants.

Practice will show how this will develop. I think that, first of all, there will be selected corridors where autonomous driving will be allowed, where powerful technology will be installed and flawless connectivity will be ensured. And there you may not need to have your hands on the wheel.

Is that something like this already being built here?

Since last year, the Munich-Prague 5G corridor has been under construction in cooperation with Bavaria. We are working with T-Mobile Czech Republic to develop certain technologies for 5G networks that will ensure communication and data exchange between individual vehicles and between the vehicle and the infrastructure. This is where various driving assistants and autonomous driving in general will be tested. We are going step by step and it will take some time. It is a development that will take several decades.

Contact

Ing. Libuše Bautzová
Ing. Libuše Bautzová

Editor-in-Chief of the Český autoprůmysl magazine

bautzova@autosap.cz

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