The Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) summer festival in Coventry saw a range of the latest transport technology displayed, including connected and autonomous vehicles and debates around AI.
The event earlier was supported by the Transport Technology Forum, (TTF) whose Connected Vehicle Working Group demonstrated the eCall automated emergency alerting system.
This automatically directed a drone to the scene of a simulated road crash, transmitting live images of the scene to a number of devices.
This demonstration, featuring VESOS, Haas Alert, Skyfarer and Coventry City Council, simulated how a drone could be used to provide vital life-saving information to emergency services and highways operators giving them prior knowledge of the extent of a crash.
A driverless pod from Ohmio took delegates on a route around the site, showing how the technology can be used for last-mile transport.
Robotiz3d also demonstrated its autonomous pothole filling machine.
CEO Paula Claytonsmith said: ‘Our Innovation and Learning Festival continues to grow and continues to highlight the huge number of great new ideas in our industry.
‘Getting more than 600 delegates together in one place for two days of learning will also have the positive effect of spawning new ideas for the future, as people with a huge amount of expertise were able to discuss what they saw and will no doubt develop further innovations.’
TTF manager Darren Capes of the Department for Transport said: 'Being able to exhibit and lecture about technology is always welcome, but the ability to demonstrate outdoors things like drone and driverless pod solutions makes the event unique.’
Other transport technology companies to exhibit at the event included Arcadis, Brighty, Causeway, Coeval, Gaist, Jenoptik, Reflow, StarTraq, Truvelo, Vaisala and Westcotec, Aisin RoadTrace, Korec Group, NAL, Rennicks Roadside Technologies, SRL, Think Project, Trojan Energy, Truvelo (UK) and XAIS-PTS.
Key attractions in the Start-Up Zone included Kerbo Charge’s on-street EV charging cabling solution and Simplifai Systems’ AI-based traffic management solutions, along with Alchera, Eloy and KL Systems.
The festival also featured a series of lectures in the Technical Learning Theatre, ranging from Vehicle Activated Signs to analysis of harsh braking to improve road safety.
In the new Innovation Think Pavilion discussions ranged from innovation challenges to getting the best out of AI.
Beyond the transport technology solutions, there were many road surfacing, road building and site solution exhibitors present at the festival, showcasing an end-to-end range of transport innovations for local authorities and the supply chain to learn about.
