ICT, ERDC to collaborate in autonomy

ICT witnessed a transformational moment when former Gov. Bruce Rauner established the Autonomous Illinois initiative last October. 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff, including ERDC Director David Pittman, Commander Col. Ivan Beckmann, Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory Director Bart Durst, Costal and Hydraulics Lab Director Ty Wamsley, and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab Director Joseph Corriveau, were eager to discuss autonomous vehicles with ICT Director Imad Al-Qadi and UIUC Research Assistant Professor Hasan Ozer.

This initiative sparked potential collaboration among many transportation stakeholders — most recently between ICT and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Earlier in April, U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center’s board of directors visited ICT, where both organizations expressed intentions to further autonomous vehicles.

“We are working on robotic construction,” said Kurt Kinnevan, technical director of ERDC’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL).

CERL also hopes to further drone technology to strengthen its remote site characterization.

“We’re going to send in an aerial drone to give us some aerial pictures,” Kinnevan added. “And then we’re going to send in ground drones to prove it and tell us what the soils are like and the materials that we have to move things along.”

Such goals come with a need for space to develop the promising technology. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers looked no further than Rantoul, issuing a public notice in search of 62 acres of land for its state-of-the-art technological developments.

The quest, should it come to fruition, will be a homecoming for some CERL employees who previously worked at Rantoul’s now decommissioned Chanute Air Force Base.

The thought of CERL developing such leading technology — likely at the former hub of transportation — is a thrill for Village of Rantoul Administrator Scott Eisenhauer.

“(We) have the ability to guide transportation’s future by (possibly) using the grounds that were designed originally for technological advancements to transportation, and that of course, is the Chanute Air Force Base,” Eisenhauer said.

This idea has ICT Director Imad Al-Qadi eager to begin autonomous vehicle collaborations with CERL for industry and ultimately motorist implementation.

ICT Director Imad Al-Qadi and ERDC Director David Pittman chat autonomous vehicle collaboration during the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers board of trustees’ visit to ICT earlier in April.

More than two dozen ERDC members and key leaders visited ICT. ERDC board members present during April’s meeting include:

• ERDC Director David Pittman,
• CERL Director Lance Hansen,
• Environmental Laboratory Director Ilker Adiguzel,
• Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Director Joe Corriveau,
• Information Technology Laboratory Director David Horner,
• Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory Director Ty Wamsley,
• Geospatial Research Laboratory Deputy Director Valerie Carney,
• Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory Deputy Director Chuck Ertle, and
• ERDC Commander Col. Ivan Beckman.