Volvo Autonomous Solutions has joined forces with Foretellix to develop autonomous driving solutions for mining environments.
The partnership aims at creating a “coverage driven verification solution”, which provides automated driving on public roads and confined areas.
The companies are planning to conduct large scale testing to ensure the autonomous vehicles will work across any encounters in their respective environments.
According to Foretellix, the partnership will focus on the safety and productivity of the vehicles from Volvo Autonomous Solutions.
Large scale simulation and data analysis during testing will benefit lower costs and a faster rollout to market.
Foretellix has developed an autonomous vehicle verification platform to use automation and big data analytics tools to monitor millions of driving scenarios, exposing any potential bugs in the autonomous solutions.
The company will use Open Measurable Scenario description language with Volvo to simplify reusing and capturing scenarios. It is also capable of mixing scenarios together to identify any unknown dangers.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions global technology manager Magnus Liljeqvist has welcomed the partnership.
“Volvo Autonomous Solutions believes in a collaborative verification concept, one that uses open standards,” he said.
“The partnership with Foretellix gives us access to the state-of-the-art verification tools and accelerating our time to market.”
Volvo Autonomous Solutions is a subsidiary of the Volvo group that was established in January 2020, with the goal of accelerating and commercialising autonomous solutions for on-road and off-road applications.
Foretellix specialises in autonomous vehicle safety by using automation and analytic tools.
“We are very proud to partner with Volvo Group. This partnership is a significant milestone for the industry as it is the first time that large-scale Coverage Driven Verification will be used for verification of ADS in confined areas,” Foretellix chief executive and co-founder Ziv Binyamini said.
“Our partnership will combine the expertise of the two companies and set a new standard in the verification of automated driving systems, boosting both safety and productivity.”
Last year, Volvo Autonomous Solutions predicated that light mining would be an early adopter of automated transport not requiring of an operator.
This is due to small mines operating over “short circuits” which have defined load and dump locations.