UK city trials 3D mapping to aid services management and autonomous vehicles

The UK’s Oxford City Council has launched a street mapping trial project which it hopes could transform how manages its services across the city and pave the way for the development of autonomous vehicles. As part of the Smart Oxford project, the trial by the council and the University of Oxford’s Robotics Institute (ORI) will see sensors attached to a city council street cleaner in the city centre to create 3D maps. At the same time, the research team at the ORI is exploring data such as road and pavement
April 19, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The UK’s Oxford City Council has launched a street mapping trial project which it hopes could transform how manages its services across the city and pave the way for the development of autonomous vehicles.


As part of the Smart Oxford project, the trial by the council and the 7333 University of Oxford’s Robotics Institute (ORI) will see sensors attached to a city council street cleaner in the city centre to create 3D maps.

At the same time, the research team at the ORI is exploring data such as road and pavement surface damage, air quality and people numbers and movement that may be obtained to help the council and its partners to better manage the city. They are also studying other data such as litter and fly-tipping, parked vehicles, broken streetlights and signs and heat loss from buildings.

The information will enable more effective planning from the city council and its partners while creating records of unreported issues such as fly-tipping for the council to act upon. If the project is successful, the new innovation could see the City Council add the mapping tool to its fleet of vehicles.

Oxford City Council is a founding partner of Smart Oxford, a strategic programme of a wide range of city partners working together to develop and promote Oxford as a smart city. The city council, along with its Smart Oxford partners, is keen to support innovative ways of trialling smart city technologies and solutions.

GIS/ Mapping & Location Based Systems Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Foundation funds research for informed campaigning
    April 29, 2015
    ITS International talks to Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the transport research and lobbying organisation, the RAC Foundation. It is through the eyes of an economist that Professor Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London and director of the RAC Foundation, views current and future transport problems. Having spent 30 years at the London School of Economics and another 10 at Imperial, the move to the RAC Foundation was a radical departure from
    Read More
  • Spin: work with cities to optimise micromobility
    September 15, 2020
    E-scooter providers must form close partnerships with local governments to create a successful operating environment which the public will accept and embrace, says Spin
    Read More
  • Aurrigo trials self-driving pods in UK
    October 30, 2018
    Aurrigo has made 15 of its self-driving pods available to residents in the UK town of Milton Keynes as part of the Autodrive project. The three-year initiative, funded by Innovate UK, is part of an agreement with Milton Keynes Council to trial the pods as a first/last mile solution for citizens and visitors. The company says the Autodrive pods can travel up to 15mph for 60 miles on one charge – operating in the city centre from the central railway station. Brian Matthews, head of transport innov
    Read More
  • SVS trials vehicle sensing tech in UK
    March 29, 2021
    Smartmicro solution includes a radar capable of monitoring 12 lanes of traffic
    Read More

Highlighted Content