CCAT Renewed as USDOT Region 5 University Transportation Center

Photograph of an automated research vehicle moving through the American Center for Mobility Test track. — Test vehicle at the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, MI

As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the U.S. Department of Transportation has renewed the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT) as the Region 5 University Transportation Center. It is the first time that Region 5 has been renewed under the program. The Center, housed at the U-M Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), was founded as part of the FAST Act in December of 2016 with partners including the University of Akron, Central State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, and Washtenaw Community College.

The FAST Act required that one of the ten selected Regional UTCs must address the field of comprehensive transportation safety, congestion, connected vehicles, connected infrastructure, and autonomous vehicles. CCAT will continue to address these challenges while adding cybersecurity implications of technologies relating to connected vehicles, connected infrastructure, and autonomous vehicles. Three new universities have been added to the existing program: the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Northwestern University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“CCAT’s work has had a profound impact on the U.S. transportation system from reducing traffic congestion to improving the safety of autonomous vehicles. Our partners have collaborated heavily with industry to establish southeast Michigan and the Midwest as the epicenter for connected and automated transportation and mobility.”
Dr. Henry Liu, Director, Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT)
Director, Mcity
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan

Over the past six years, CCAT has produced a broad range of research that has addressed multiple aspects of the transportation system including:

An augmented reality environment to increase the efficiency of AV safety testing which is deployed at Mcity
A model that considers the platooning capabilities of connected and automated freight trucks to reduce traffic delays and their impact on road infrastructure
A cooperative perception system that fuses Lidar data with onboard sensors to create a safer driving environment

You can read the full press release on the Michigan Engineering News website.

$15 million for connected and automated transportation, renewing U-M-led Midwest hub