UCI is part of a national research consortium that recently received a nearly $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish a top-ranking university transportation center. The Ohio State University-led Autonomous Vehicle Research Center with Multimodal Assured Navigation will investigate and develop solutions to the safety and security challenges of autonomous vehicles. Problems that researchers at the center will focus on include the positioning, navigation and timing components related to highly automated transportation systems. Researchers aim to develop technology to counter vulnerabilities in the Global Positioning System, such as hacker attacks and unintentional signal interference, that could cause collisions and worsen traffic congestion. Autonomous vehicles rely on a continuous flow of information and data from GPS and other sensors, and accurate and timely exchange of position data is essential for short-range driving control and long-range navigation and planning. “GPS is at the heart of virtually all vehicle navigation systems. Failure of the navigation system through unintentional interference, intentional jamming, or malicious spoofing can have dangerous consequences,” said lead researcher and center director Zach Casas, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). “As vehicles move closer to fully autonomous driving with fewer human components, the accuracy, reliability and dependability of vehicle navigation systems becomes more important than ever. We’ve assembled a best-in-class team of navigation and transportation experts to study this problem and present concrete solutions.” In addition to Ohio State and UCI, the consortium includes the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Cincinnati, and research will be conducted at all four universities.
