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Since 1973, the Volvo Ocean Race has provided the ultimate test of a team and a human adventure like no other. Over four decades it has kept an almost mythical hold over some of the greatest ever sailors – and the 2017-18 edition will take the teams 45,000 nautical miles around the world, across four oceans, touching six continents and 12 landmark Host Cities. When the Volvo Ocean Race arrives in Gothenburg June 14, SAFER and Chalmers is in place at the event area to give the public the chance to get close to pioneering research.

Fredrik Von Corswant, Managing drector at Revere, SAFER’s research lab for automated vehicles, tells us more about the participation in the big upcoming public event:

“On June 19th, we will showcase our truck and our test car "Snowfox" in Mastervolt's booth. Mastervolt develops and sells mobile power supplies, e.g. to boats, fire trucks, motor homes. We use their system to get a stable power supply in our vehicles, which also allows us to run our systems on battery for several hours and do not need to drive the engine at idle to keep the car battery charged".

Program your own self-propelled miniature car
Revere shows self-propelled miniature cars that visitors can program themselves using open source software. Such an opportunity is world-unique, tells Ola Benderius, one of SAFER’s researchers:
"The general public is usually far away from this kind of technology. Now we make it so easy that you just need to pick up the phone to get started".

Open source can save lives
Utilizing open source in security-critical systems is something that has been met with skepticism. But Ola Benderius sees great benefits of releasing the users behind the scenes. Access to open source makes the threshold of development opportunities lower, while increasing data security, he says:

"There is a misunderstanding that open source increases the risk of hacking. On the contrary, research shows that bugs in the software and the time to fix them are greatly reduced if you are open with exactly how the programs work. For self-propelled vehicles this can save people's lives".

Compete to have your code used in a truck
As an extra gold edge, visitors in the stand can compete to see their code used in a self-propelled truck. The software used to control the small vehicles in the booth is the same as the researchers use in full-size trucks.
 
"The one who creates the best self-driving behavior during the Volvo Ocean Race week is rewarded with a full day on the Astazero test track, where a truck is programmed with the same code," says Ola Benderius.

Welcome to the Volvo Ocean Race village June 14-21, see more information at https://www.volvooceanrace.com