The Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and JTC have today opened Singapore’s first autonomous vehicle (AV) test centre located in Jurong Innovation District.
2. The new 2-hectare test facility which was jointly developed by LTA, NTU and JTC, will support the Centre of Excellence for Testing & Research of AVs – NTU (CETRAN), which was launched on 1 Aug 2016, to spearhead the development of testing requirements for AVs. Together with CETRAN and its partners, LTA will work towards developing the necessary standards and testing regimes for the safe deployment of AVs on our public roads. As there are currently no existing international test standards or international certification bodies for AVs, CETRAN will anchor Singapore’s position in supporting the testing and eventual widespread deployment of AVs.
Fully-Equipped Test Centre
3. For safe and seamless integration onto public roads, AVs need to be tested on their communication and interaction with other vehicles, road infrastructure and elements as well as dispatch and routing systems. To facilitate the testing of AV navigation controls in a real-world environment, the CETRAN AV Test Centre is designed to replicate the different elements of Singapore’s roads, with common traffic schemes, road infrastructure, and traffic rules. The circuit also features a rain simulator and flood zone to test AVs’ navigation abilities under different weather conditions.
4. To monitor the progress of AV testing, LTA has installed a network of seven 360-degrees close circuit television (CCTV) cameras at strategic locations across the test centre. Real-time footages from these CCTVs will be streamed back to the AutOnomous VehicLe MonItoring and EValuation SystEm (OLIVE), housed at LTA’s Intelligent Transport Systems Centre. Through OLIVE, LTA will be able to integrate data from AVs and the CCTVs to evaluate the readiness of AVs for public use. Please refer to the Annex for the Test Centre’s layout and detailed features.
5. LTA’s Chief Innovation and Technology Officer Mr Lam Wee Shan said: “The launch of the CETRAN AV Test Centre today marks a significant milestone in our efforts to become a leading global hub for the development of autonomous vehicle technology. As the safety of all road users is paramount, the Test Centre has been outfitted with equipment and infrastructure that can be configured to simulate various traffic scenarios for AV testing in a dense urban setting. This is an important enabler as we continue to explore ways to leverage the latest AV technology for our land transport system, be it in the form of mass public transport or shared transport options. By being able to test out the safety and feasibility of latest AV research, we can develop these research into deployable projects that will ultimately benefit users of our transport systems.”
6. Professor Lam Khin Yong, NTU’s Acting Provost, Chief of Staff and Vice President for Research, said, “Like many urban cities in the world, Singaporeans rely heavily on a mix of public transport, personal cars and taxis for their daily commute, and autonomous vehicles are expected to play an increasing role in future mobility solutions. NTU has been ramping up research in autonomous vehicles in the past several years and it is also the first to trial a driverless vehicle in Singapore. The commissioning of this Test Centre marks a new milestone for Singapore and leveraging on NTU’s strengths in research excellence and innovation, the university is primed to accelerate the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles for the nation.”
Located in Singapore’s Largest Living Lab
7. CETRAN and the Test Centre is strategically located in Jurong Innovation District, Singapore’s largest living lab. Jurong Innovation District will house companies focusing on urban solutions, advanced manufacturing, and smart logistics. The co-location of NTU, research institutes and a network of corporations will foster closer collaboration among academia, industries and enterprises to further the development of new solutions and innovation within the District.
8. “The rapid pace of technological advancement in the urban solutions space is transforming the way we live and work, and will change the way we plan and develop our estates. As a living lab, Jurong Innovation District allows us to harness new technologies like autonomous vehicles, and provide a conducive environment for the development and adoption of urban mobility solutions,” said JTC CEO, Mr Ng Lang.
Furthering AV Research through Industry Partnerships
9. Together with NTU, CETRAN will work closely with industry partners such as Siemens and SystemX to explore various areas of AV research. This includes exploring support infrastructure for AVs such as sensors and signalling systems, and perform independent verification of autonomous vehicles through computer simulations.
10. CETRAN also inked partnership agreements with four organisations during the ceremony. They are PTV Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd, a leading corporation in traffic and transportation solutions, the National Physical Laboratory, United Kingdom’s largest applied physics organisation, and NXP Semiconductors Singapore Pte Ltd, global automotive semiconductor supplier in secure connected cars, and Diamond Energy for energy management technologies for electric autonomous vehicles.
Annex: Centran AV Test Centre’s layout and detailed features
About the Land Transport Authority
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport, which spearheads land transport developments in Singapore. As the agency responsible for planning, designing, building and maintaining Singapore’s land transport infrastructure and systems, we aim to bring about a greener and more inclusive public transport system, complemented by convenient options to walk and cycle from their homes or to their destinations. We leverage technology to strengthen our rail and bus infrastructure and provide exciting options for future land transport.
About Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and its Interdisciplinary Graduate School. It also has a medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI), Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI).
Ranked 11th in the world, NTU has also been ranked the world’s top young university for the last four years running. The University’s main campus has been named one of the Top 15 Most Beautiful in the World. NTU also has a campus in Novena, Singapore’s medical district.
For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg.
About JTC
Set up in 1968, JTC is the lead government agency responsible for the development of industrial infrastructure to support and catalyse the growth of industries and enterprises in Singapore. Landmark projects by JTC include the Jurong Industrial Estate; the Jurong Island for energy and chemical industries; business and specialised parks such as Airport Logistics Park of Singapore, International Business Park, Changi Business Park, Seletar Aerospace Park, CleanTech Park and Tuas Biomedical Park; a work-live-play-&-learn development called one-north; and the Jurong Rock Caverns, Southeast Asia’s first commercial underground storage facility for liquid hydrocarbons. JTC also develops innovative space such as JTC Surface Engineering Hub, JTC MedTech Hub @ MedTech Park and JTC Food Hub @ Senoko, which incorporate innovative features and shared infrastructure to enable industrialists to start their operations quickly and enhance productivity.
For more information, visit www.jtc.gov.sg.
