VTT’s robot car parks autonomously

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland’s robot car Marilyn is parking autonomously - 100m away from its driver. The trial in Tampere uses the Internet of Things (IoT) and is expected to allow vehicles to park closer together without fear of collisions at airports and shopping centres. Johan Scholliers, project manager at VTT, says the technology will also help reduce congestion in parking areas.
June 25, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
814 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland’s robot car Marilyn is parking autonomously - 100m away from its driver. The trial in Tampere uses the Internet of Things (IoT) and is expected to allow vehicles to park closer together without fear of collisions at airports and shopping centres.


Johan Scholliers, project manager at VTT, says the technology will also help reduce congestion in parking areas.

Marilyn utilises 7643 Here Technologies’ ultra-wideband (UWB)-based technology which allows it to be positioned indoors without satellite assistance. UWB is a radio technology that transmits data in short and low-power pulses over a wide frequency band.

The driver parks the car through an app that reserves a parking space. A parking guidance system confirms whether the space is free and detects potential problems using traffic cameras connected to an open IoT platform – which in turn transmits route information to the vehicle.

VTT’s trial is part of the Autopilot project’s investigation of the potential for IoT-automated driving. The initiative is funded by the European Commission and is also operational in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Spain and South Korea.

Parking & Access Control

Related Content

  • December 12, 2018
    VTT utilises 5G network to improve road safety
    VTT’s Technical Research Centre in Finland has carried out an experiment using the 5G mobile network to help improve road safety, control self-driving cars and assist road maintenance providers. The company says 5G networks and fast data transmission solutions can collect sensor, video and radar data from vehicles. Public funding agency Business Finland subsidised the VTT's 5G-Safe project. It is part of the Challenge Finland competition, an initiative which explores the use of augmented reality an
    Read More
  • February 7, 2017
    European Autopilot project kicks off
    The European Autopilot project, which aims to enable safer highly automated, has kicked off in Versailles, France with a public event attended by public authorities, industry, service providers, users and research institutes. Financed by the European Horizon 2020 programme, internet of things (IoT)-enabled automated vehicles will be deployed at six pilot tests sites in France, Finland, Korea, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. The pilot sites will generate data to evaluate the technical performance of th
    Read More
  • December 18, 2017
    VTT launches AV for snow and ice conditions, Finland
    VTT Technical Research Centre (VTT) of Finland has launched what it claims to be the first autonomous car (AC) to have successfully driven on a real snow-covered road. It also reached speeds of up to 40 km/h during a trial on the Aurora E8 intelligent road in Muonio.
    Read More
  • March 25, 2020
    ProPart AV trial crosses the line
    The perceived safety benefits of autonomous vehicles can only be realised with precise positioning. Ben Spencer reports from Sweden on work by a European consortium which aims to use the technology to allow a truck to carry out an automated lane change
    Read More

Highlighted Content