During or just after a bushfire, rescuers’ lives hang in the balance. Tasked with firefighting, rescue and reconnaissance, they drive into potentially deadly environments to find survivors or put out flames. This risk to rescuers could be reduced if their vehicles can be automated – and a major all-Aussie collaboration is aiming to do just that and more, looking to save lives, time, and money.
The partnership, between six Aussie universities, Ford Australia and other industry players, has formed to take on this challenge, in what could establish Australia as the epicentre for extreme-case vehicle automation.
Extreme and remote conditions set the scene for Australian vehicle automation
Today, vehicle automation globally is mainly focused on urban areas for uses like last mile delivery. But what of other environments like extreme terrain, smoke or flood, or remote roads? They need more advanced technology to navigate challenges like a lack of lane markings, gradients and large wildlife, and they need the toughest vehicles.
“Australia has unique uses for autonomous vehicles. What we want to do is develop autonomous vehicle technology that helps remove risk to human life in situations like bushfires, makes roads safer by automating monotonous driving tasks like those on farms, and frees up humans so they can do other work, like freeing up paramedics to deliver patient care rather than driving,” said Professor Sebastian Glaser, Centre Director of The ARC’s Training Centre for Automated Vehicles for Rural and Remote Regions (AVR3), headquartered at QUT.
AVR3 is an $11m program between researchers from Queensland University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Deakin University, Sydney University, University of Technology Sydney, and University of Western Australia, as well as industry partners. It is an example of how enterprise and education partners are working together to build technologies that save and improve lives, and that could form part of the future Australian economy.
“The opportunities are endless – there are so many uses that we can test for in Australia and that could benefit people outside urban areas,” said Professor Glaser.
Vehicles designed for Aussie conditions enable Aussie-developed automation
AVR3 and the technology it will develop is Aussie through and through, right down to the vehicle it will be developed on – the Australian-led Ford Ranger and Ranger Superduty.
“When our Aussie team was working on Ranger and Ranger Superduty, we spoke to customers across heavy industry – mining, agriculture, forestry, emergency services – to really understand their day-to-day work and the exposure they have to harsh conditions,” said Jeremy Welch, Special Projects Engineer at Ford Australia.
“It was clear to us that these customers needed extremely heavy-duty vehicles, but we also saw that they could benefit from automation for risk management, productivity, and cost.
“We knew that developing a smart truck would make it easier to integrate autonomous technology for the next phase of Ranger’s evolution, which is automation,”
The Ford Ranger is already automated by some mining companies. AVR3 aims to expand on these uses, in particular, how automation can be safely used on public roads.
University and industry collaboration critical to innovation
“We are delighted to work with our industry partners through the ARC Training Centre for Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions (AVR3),” said Distinguished Professor Saeid Nahavandi, Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research & Chief of Defence Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology.
“This collaboration exemplifies the impact of strong industry-academic partnerships in advancing research and innovation, pushing the frontiers of science, and delivering meaningful benefits for society.”
