Development of a Workshop on Automated Vehicle Technologies

Connectivity and automation in vehicles have the potential to change nearly every aspect of our transportation system. Vehicles with these capabilities are already being tested on public roads and are beginning to enter the national fleet. These vehicles have the potential to bring numerous benefits to the public, but these benefits come with tradeoffs that must be carefully considered by transportation professionals. This project focuses on the development and delivery of a two-day workshop on connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) for an audience of public transportation professionals. This workshop was designed to not only provide an overview of CAV technologies but to also to take an in-depth look at Global Navigation Satellite Systems, LIDAR, and the software and algorithms that use these sensors for localization and navigation. The goal of the workshop was to help develop technical literacy about these technologies among workshop participants to provide context when encountering CAV technologies. A workshop was developed that incorporates classroom lectures and demonstrations using a robotic unmanned ground vehicle. A pilot offering of the workshop was delivered in May 2019, which was attended by eight public transportation professionals representing different agencies at different levels of government. Participant feedback was collected to evaluate the efficacy of the workshop. Responses were almost exclusively positive, highlighting participants' interest in both classroom sessions and demonstrations. Using constructive feedback, improvements have been identified for future offerings. Workshop participants found the workshop to be interesting and reported learning about the topics covered, motivating future offerings.