CTS Webinar: Autonomous Technology in Transportation Maintenance Operations

Wednesday, May 8, 2024, 12:00–1:30 pm
 Virtual

About the Event

This webinar explored the use of autonomous technology to support worker safety in transportation maintenance operations. Presentations highlighted: 
  • A U of M research project that developed two low-cost, modular, highly transportable, mobile robot platforms for pavement density profile testing. The robots provide nondestructive asphalt structural evaluation using ground penetrating radar while reducing workers' exposure to traffic hazards.
  • A MnDOT effort piloting automated technology in vehicles equipped with truck-mounted attenuators—crash cushions designed to absorb impacts in the case of rear-end collisions. By working to allow these vehicles to operate without workers inside, the agency aims to reduce the risk to those employees while also maintaining the safety of roadside crews.

The webinar was held in conjunction with a CTS Transportation Infrastructure Council meeting.

Speakers 

Adam Wellnar
Adam Wellner
Ted Morris
Ted Morris
Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos
Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos

Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos is a professor in the U's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the director of the Minnesota Robotics Institute, and a faculty member of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Vision Laboratory. His research interests include robotics, sensors for transportation applications, computer vision, and control systems.

Ted Morris is a research engineer with the Minnesota Robotics Institute and the Center for Distributed Robotics. His research focuses on using roadside and in-vehicle/robotic ITS sensing technologies for assessing traffic and road user behaviors and control. 

Adam Wellner is a lead project manager in MnDOT's Office of Connected and Automated Vehicles. In this role, he provides project management for efforts that support MnDOT's understanding and implementation of CAV technology. He has over a decade of experience at MnDOT designing work zones, pavement markings, signing, signals, ITS, and other elements of traffic engineering.

More Information

Please contact Samantha Hahn-Douville at snhahn@umn.edu.