Altran and 5TONIC to Innovate the Future of Mobility Using 5G

Altran is sharing its intelligent edge computing platform and research to improve the reliability and performance of advanced driver assistance systems

Altran, an engineering and R&D services company, and 5TONIC, an open research and innovation laboratory of which Altran is a member, are collaborating on 5G mobile projects to improve the reliability and performance of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

With its main lab located at the IMDEA Networks Institute in Madrid, 5TONIC helps organizations innovate by developing and delivering market-ready 5G solutions, technology applications and business ventures. Altran’s open-source edge computing platform, Ensconce, was recently integrated with 5TONIC as part of the lab’s 5G network. The platform lays the foundation for immersive and time-sensitive applications that are emerging across industries.

“Working with members of 5TONIC and the automotive ecosystem, Altran’s research and innovation in the future of mobility aims to bring safety-critical 5G capabilities to autonomous driving,” said Walid Negm, Group Chief Innovation Officer at Altran. “Specifically, ADAS features that make today’s cars safer can achieve new levels of performance and reliability when connected to an edge computing infrastructure through high-speed data rates and ultra-reliable low latency.”

“As the task of driving shifts further away from human drivers, we need computing platforms that are robust and reliable for a wide range of driving situations, and we can’t depend on the vehicle as the data center,” added Negm. “Autonomous cars will need terabytes of onboard memory, hundreds of gigabytes of bandwidth and petabytes per year of storage. With 5G capability and edge infrastructure, vehicles’ complex driving decisions can be augmented by a distributed autonomous system that assists in environmental perception and localization, planning and replanning, motion control and multi-vehicle cooperation to achieve higher trust levels.”

Countries increasingly are adopting ADAS technology to improve safety and reduce driver stress. Today’s ADAS features ‒ such as adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection systems and surround view systems ‒ are executed in a vehicle’s electronic control unit (ECU), which monitors surroundings and activates safety features, such as automatic braking and lane-changing warnings. But studies show that ADAS features still leave consumers nervous. Altran told Incisor that it is leveraging the 5TONIC community and lab to advance the reliability and performance of ADAS, thereby increasing consumer trust in the technology.

Members of 5TONIC apparently collaborate to showcase industry use cases in demonstrations and real-world deployments. They also can preview 5G capabilities to better identify and understand the potential uses that will drive future 5G development. Current member companies include Telefonica, Ericsson, Intel, UC3M, IMDEA Networks, Commscope and InterDigital.