A milestone: autonomous vehicle ANTON receives approval for road traffic

An important step in autonomous driving research at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI) has been achieved. The automated research vehicle ANTON has received approval for operation on public roads after a positive assessment by TÜV Süd.

Ein kleines Auto steht an der Straße, im Hintergrund stehen drei Männer

The electric car ANTON has received approval for public road traffic in germany after a positive assessment by TÜV Süd. Professor Dr. Ondrej Vaculin (centre) and the two research assistants of the Carissma Institute of Safety in Future Mobility of the THI, Ömer Dönmez (right) and Thiago De Borba (left) are pleased about new research opportunities.

A car in front of a building
A small car on the street

A safety driver is mandatory for ANTON to be allowed to drive on public roads at all.

Packed with sensors, ANTON is now exploring the roads of Germany. CARISSMA's Vehicle Safety Research Centre has received an exemption from the authorities for the registration of the automated research vehicle ANTON. The exemption was issued on the basis of extensive investigations by experts and surveyors from the company TÜV Süd. THI thus achieves an important milestone in the realisation of its vision of the open platform for the development and validation of automated and connected driving.

ANTON is based on a Renault Twizy and was converted by the British company StreetDrone. At its heart is the open Drive-By-Wire system. This means that the accelerator pedal, gearstick, brake and steering are controlled electrically. The expansion of the vehicle to include the necessary environmental sensors, so-called v2x communication, computing power and software components was carried out by THI.

Safety driver must ride along

This means that the vehicle may now be operated automatically on public roads - under the supervision of a safety driver. The vehicle was developed and built as part of the SAFIR research partnership (Safety for all - Innovative Research Partnership on Global Vehicle and Road Safety Systems) with support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

"The Germany-wide approval of ANTON is an important milestone for the entire research centre and underlines the commitment of Ingolstadt University of Technology to the development of safe and reliable automated vehicle technologies. Ingolstadt University of Technology is looking forward to using ANTON even more intensively in the future to further develop the field of automated and connected mobility," said THI President Walter Schober.

Over the next few weeks, ANTON will now be on the road in Ingolstadt and beyond. A special sensor on the roof collects data to subsequently create a 3D map. "We then feed a semantic map into the vehicle's software to plan a route. ANTON also needs to know, for example, how many lanes the road has," explains Ömer Dönmez, research associate at the Carissma Institute of Safety in Future Mobilite (C-ISAFE).

Making road traffic safer and more efficient

"Through the research work at THI, road traffic can become safer and more efficient," says Professor Ondrej Vaculin. He is very pleased that ANTON has now received approval. "It is extremely complicated. That's why there always has to be a safety driver in the vehicle," says Vaculin.

The Renault Twizy's field of application is wide: among other things, the vehicle is used for demonstrations and tests as part of projects and partnerships with industry and academic institutions. Of course, THI students also have the opportunity to work with the research vehicle as part of final theses and semester projects to gain valuable practical experience in the field of research.

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