The VTT’s robot car Marilyn is taking automated parking

based on UWB positioning and parking commands given by the application of HERE. The parking place is given with tablet and then, the robot car parks itself fully automatically (also changing gear from forward to reverse mode). Data exchange between vehicles and tablet is done with using wireless communication channel and utilising Data Distribution Server (DDS).

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland’s robot car Marilyn is parking autonomously – 100m away from its driver. The trial in Tampere uses the Internet of Things (IoT) and is expected to allow vehicles to park closer together without fear of collisions at airports and shopping centres.

Johan Scholliers, project manager at VTT, says the technology will also help reduce congestion in parking areas.

Marilyn utilises Here Technologies’ ultra-wideband (UWB)-based technology which allows it to be positioned indoors without satellite assistance. UWB is a radio technology that transmits data in short and low-power pulses over a wide frequency band.

The driver parks the car through an app that reserves a parking space. A parking guidance system confirms whether the space is free and detects potential problems using traffic cameras connected to an open IoT platform – which in turn transmits route information to the vehicle.

VTT’s trial is part of the Autopilot project’s investigation of the potential for IoT-automated driving. The initiative is funded by the European Commission and is also operational in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Spain and South Korea.