Chattanooga, Tennessee, will use nearly $5 million in federal funds to build out 86 smart intersections, considered to be the largest deployment of its kind in the US.
Seoul Robotics, a startup with offices in Irvine, California, is working with the city and urban informatics researchers at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on the project using $4.75 million in funds from the Federal Highway Administration. Researchers will gain insights on mapping, tracking and identification on efficient mobility in the city.
The system being installed in the coming year will eventually cover 130 intersections and is comprised of lidar sensors and relies on Seoul Robotics’ 3D perception software called SENSR. It is based on AI with the ability to filter weather conditions and anonymously detect, track and predict the movement of pedestrians and vehicles regardless of rain, fog and other conditions.
Seoul Robotics claims its software offers the ability to identify potential accidents and wrong-way driving, in addition to understanding traffic flow. Such insights could help the city better prepare for electric vehicles, including where to install EV charging stations and other infrastructure, perhaps V2X equipment.
The deployment in 2023 comes after more than three years of planning with three intersections installed as a testbed with the idea of understanding traffic flow to reduce emissions. The testing gave insights and accuracy with pedestrians, said William Muller, vice president of business development at Seoul Robotics.
“There hasn’t been a technology so far with such detailed information on pedestrians without encroaching on privacy,” Muller told Fierce Electronics. “We didn’t care about gender or demographics; all we cared about was how pedestrians were behaving and how to keep things moving in the city. The goal was to move slow and safe, but also to protect pedestrians.”
The expansion beyond the test will position the city as a pioneer of smart city tech and help create a blueprint for other cities, said Mina Sartipi, founding director of UTC’s Center for Urban Informatics and Progess, in a statement.
Seoul Robotics also introduced on Wednesday its next generation SENSR 3.0 at the onset of CES 2023 in Las Vegas. The new version provides QuickTune, a tool to expedite calibration. The company works with Nvidia on its systems and has active deployments in Florida and in South Korea. It is commissioning projects for cities in Virginia, Muller said.
The startup, founded in 2017 in Seoul by a group of engineers, recently announced $25 million in Series B funding led by KB Investment and a doubling of annual revenue growth for the second year in a row. In July, BMW announced deployment of Seoul Robotics’ Level 5 Control Tower for automating finished vehicle logistics in its new Series 7 production assembly line at a plant in Germany. The company plans to sell the technology for other applications including rental car fleets and trucking yards. In addition to Irvine, the company has offices in Seoul, Munich and Raleigh, North Carolina.
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