Training Centre for Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions

A successful application for an Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions (AVR3) was announced in July 2023, led by its Centre Director Prof Sebastien Glaser and Co-Director Prof Ronald Schroeter.

This new ARC Training Centre AVR3 will be a collaborative and interdisciplinary effort. Chief investigators are coming together from QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q), the QUT Design Lab, Centre for Data Science, and Centre for Robotics, plus leading researchers, industry, and government partners from all around Australia (see partner list below).

ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centres are major five-year federally funded centres, with $5M core funding plus more cash and in-kind provided by university, industry and government partners. They have a substantive focus on training of the talent required and the development of the capabilities needed for Australia’s industries to be transformed into the future.

The ARC Training Centre AVR3 will build skills and capability to test and deploy safe, socially acceptable, automated vehicles (AV) for rural, regional, and remote Australian public roads, where manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and defence industries face significant challenges of driver shortages, rising costs, long distances, rough roads, and environmental impacts.

The ARC Training Centre AVR3 will unite technology providers, regulators, government, and end users with world-leading interdisciplinary researchers to create new human-AV systems, datasets, frameworks, case studies, platforms, and a vastly upskilled workforce. This will reduce transport costs, increase capacity, boost supply chain efficiency and resilience, improve road safety, and elevate Australian capability.

The ARC Training Centre AVR3 is currently in its establishment phase and is expected to be operational from mid-2024 – 2029, with an official launch event in mid-2025. For further information about how to get involved, please contact AVR3 Centre Director Prof Sebastien Glaser (sebastien.glaser@qut.edu.au) and Co-Director Prof Ronald Schroeter (r.schroeter@qut.edu.au).

Collaborators from QUT: Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q), Centre for Data Science, Centre for Robotics, QUT Design Lab, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering.