Florida Poly and TalTech advance AV research through successful partnership

“There’s a need for a research platform where we can accelerate the rate at which we’re solving the safety problems with AV technology”

Four years after announcing an innovative partnership on autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, Florida Polytechnic University and Tallin University of Technology (TalTech) in Estonia have taken their research to the next level. The collaboration has produced significant results, enabling the exchange of knowledge, resources, and expertise between the two institutions and beyond.

The partnership integrates Florida Poly’s expertise in AV validation and verification with TalTech’s ability to run AV technology on a shuttle built on open-source software, which allows access to the software’s internal workings. This created an open-source environment called PolyVerif, which provides new tools for testing and validating AV technology.

“There’s a need for a research platform where we can accelerate the rate at which we’re solving the safety problems with AV technology, and that’s what our joint research with TalTech offers,” said Dr. Rahul Razdan, senior director for special projects at Florida Poly and researcher at its Advanced Mobility Institute (AMI).

Razdan said the research has been used by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, with whom AMI also has an ongoing partnership. On the TalTech side, the initial work led to the formation of the commercial entity Auvetech, which offers AV shuttles worldwide.

“It’s been rewarding to see the progress we’ve been making through our partnership with Florida Poly’s Advanced Mobility Institute in developing tools that are helping in the advancement of AV technology,” said Raivo Sell, a robotics professor who leads the AV research group at TalTech. “We’re looking forward to continuing working together on solving critical challenges in safety, testing, and verification.” 

As part of the collaboration, Sell spent months at Florida Poly working with faculty and building a robust research framework. The work provided crucial information that facilitated a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Florida Poly’s AMI.

Florida Poly and TalTech have garnered attention beyond their partnership. TalTech submitted a proposal to the Baltic American Freedom Foundation to sponsor several talks by Razdan as an expert in the field. These were hosted in Estonia, Finland, and Latvia, including one at FinEst Centre for Smart Cities, a multi-national research organization focused on improving urban environments by testing and developing new technologies.

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