Perrone Robotics, Inc., a provider of fully autonomous vehicle (AV) technology and turnkey vehicle solutions for the mobility of people and things, completed a series of public road demonstrations in the city of Westminster, Md., as part of an event hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Gigabit Innovation Collaboratory (MAGIC) Autonomous Corridor Project. Following the success achieved in Maryland, a week later the company conducted back-to-back public road tests for customers with a GreenPower AV Star zero-emission transit shuttle, and a Low Speed Vehicle (LSV) neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV), both integrated with Perrone Autonomy (these vehicles are slated for customer deployment later this summer for use in municipal and university transit applications).
Westminster, Md. Demonstration
For the MAGIC Autonomous Corridor Project event, the on-road demonstrations were conducted with GreenPower Motor Company’s AV Star – a fully autonomous, all-electric shuttle integrated with Perrone Robotics’ autonomous vehicle retrofit kit, TONY. Perrone Robotics developed the complex operational design domain (ODD) route with the approval of the Maryland Department of Transportation, the City of Westminster Police Department, county government officials and various other public stakeholders. The complex ODD route required the AV shuttle to successfully navigate a designated neighborhood, left and right turns, around a city park, a 4-way stop and through a historic city neighborhood.
“Perrone was able to deploy its AVs over a two-day period across Westminster, Md., in an impressive proof of concept demonstration,” said Graham Dodge, executive director at MAGIC. “The vehicles performed flawlessly on our public roads and represent a promising milestone for autonomous transportation.”
Charlottesville, Va. Albemarle County Regional Demonstration
In addition to the ODD demonstration in Maryland, Perrone Robotics also completed a series of demonstrations in the Charlottesville, Va. area, that included multiple roundabouts, a stop-off at a post office, busy town intersections and county roads.
Perrone’s Autonomy provides a scalable solution built around a patented full-stack platform, MAX®, the TONY® (short for “TO Navigate You”) retrofit kit and a safety certifiable framework, Perrone’s Safety Watchdog. The result is an AV retrofit kit that integrates seamlessly into any vehicle for any job applications for use in the autonomous transit of people and goods in geo-fenced and localized operations. Customers are able to accelerate the global deployment of autonomous vehicle fleet solutions across their gas-powered, diesel and electric passenger and cargo shuttles.
Perrone Robotics received national recognition several years ago for technically reaching Level 5 autonomy in its 2019 public road demonstrations in Albemarle County, Virginia. The company operated for several months throughout the summer and fall on public roads with zero driver interventions.
Today the company continues to build on that success with over 30 vehicle types outfitted, 40,000 autonomous miles driven, additional patents and AV applications. Perrone has additional AV transit, cargo and delivery shuttles under development and will be ready for use in public fleets by late summer 2021.
“We have been operating in a driverless fashion with our autonomy since 2005, including the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge,” stated Paul Perrone, founder and CEO of Perrone Robotics. “It’s great to see our pioneering research take hold as a reliable commercial solution that’s deployable now.”
Autono-MaaS
Performance milestones like these and continued collaboration with automated mobility service providers are crucial to developing the emerging Autono-MaaS (autonomous-mobility as a service) marketplace. Through real-world demonstrations with Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs), and large shuttles, cargo and delivery vehicles integrated with Perrone Robotics, the company continues to prove that reliable AV technology can help provide innovative mobility and access options for transit and transportation solutions providers.
