Session 4B: Automated Driving Systems: Self-Driving Shuttle Buses

Stantec Platinum Session 

Session Description: The anticipated paradigm shift in transportation is here and manifesting itself by impacting our daily lives. With the ongoing advances in technology, it is expected that this will continue at an accelerated pace and further expand its footprint in our societies. As a result, the new mobility ecosystem requires new thinking, rules, regulations, policies, business models and operational strategies that will be needed as more and more commuters demand creative new ways to meet their travel needs, on-demand and in real-time. With the promise of automation, our society is poised for major disruptive changes and no other industry than ours in transportation, is more at the forefront of this change. While automaton and the connected environment will bring great benefits in safety, mobility, efficiency, and accessibility, it will also impact every aspect of life including the industry itself. This session will include presentations regarding these disruptive changes, the latest in Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV), Automated Driving Systems, and use of self-driving shuttle buses in surface transportation.

Moderator: Douglas George, Stantec Consulting Services Inc.

• Benefits/Impacts of Automated Driving Systems, Rod Schebesch, Vice President, CAV Program Lead, Stantec Consulting Services Inc.
• Self-Driving Shuttle Buses in Surface Transportation, Koorosh Olyai, Senior Principal, Advanced Transportation Management Systems, Stantec Consulting Services Inc.
• A Mechanical Engineering Perspective on the Opportunities and Challenges of Self-Driving Transit Vehicles, Sean Brennan, PhD, Professor, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Penn State University

Speaker Bios:

Rod Schebesch has spent his 26-year career enhancing mobility. He specializes in the implementation of new transportation technology—and in understanding how that technology will transform North American transportation networks. With a focus on building smarter cities, Rod is always striving to find greater infrastructure efficiencies that positively impact the built environment. He has led projects involving automated vehicles, transit-rideshare technology, driverless shuttles, and smart cities planning. Currently, he is serving as Stantec’s program manager for ACTIVE-AURORA, Canada’s largest connected-automated-vehicles test bed, and is leading the creation of Canada’s first smart corridor in Edmonton.

Koorosh Olyai, PE, is the senior principal for advanced transportation management systems with Stantec. He has 38 years of experience in public and private sectors developing, implementing, operating, and managing highway and transit facilities including traffic engineering and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) projects. Koorosh has been recognized by FHWA, TRB, ITS America, ITS Texas and featured on CNN’s Science & Technology. He serves on the Civil Engineering Advisory Boards of the University of Texas in Arlington and Texas Southern University. Presently, he is advancing the feasibility of developing and operating a Connected Automated Vehicle (CAV) test bed facility for the New Zealand Transport Agency, developing Code of Practice for HAVs in Dubai, and leading the efforts to deploy self-driving, electric shuttle buses for HART in Tampa.

A designated U.S. expert in ITS, he is the head of U.S. delegation (HOD), chairman of the US Technical Advisory Group (US TAG), and convener of Working Group for Public Transport and Emergency Management to the International Standards Organization (ISO) for ITS.

Dr. Sean Brennan is a professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, where he has taught since 2003. He leads a group of roughly 30 graduate and undergraduate engineers in the Intelligent Vehicles and Systems Group. He is heavily involved with ground vehicle testing, automation, and connectivity research at The Larson Transportation Institute, Penn State’s transportation research center. His research focuses on vehicle dynamics and automation, both at high speeds (highway vehicles) and low speeds (ground robotics and nuclear inspection robotics), and map-based estimation of vehicle position, health, safety, and other factors particularly using vehicle-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle interaction communication (automation, teleoperation, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-grid, and driving simulation). His research has resulted in approximately 150 peer-reviewed publications. In 2008, he was awarded the SAE Teetor Award. He also won a number of Penn State awards including the Premier Teaching Award in 2011, Outstanding Teaching Award in 2008, and the Quality Improvement Award in 2005 for his outreach activity training high-school students in vehicle dynamics and automation. He has served as an associate editor of the Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control as well as the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. He was also the former chair, vice-chair, secretary, and conference organizer for ASME’s Dynamic Systems and Control Technical Committee on Automotive and Transportation Systems.