26 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

The idea of a futuristic city where people and ma-

chines interact seamlessly has long been a common

theme in science ﬁction and pop culture. It depicts

a utopia where devices in homes, transportation

and workplaces are guided by sensors and connect-

ed by computers, all sharing information to antici-

pate and adjust for human comfort, efﬁciency and safety.

As we head into the 2020s, such an environ-

ment inches closer to reality. But are people

fully prepared for smart city automation to move out of labo-

ratories and into the public square? Though various elements

of the technology already exist in many areas, the ﬁnal hurdle

toward widespread connectivity depends not only on systems

engineers working out the ﬁnal bugs but also on society

adapting to a new age of “smartness.”

Clearing that last-mile gap was a common theme in dis-

cussions at the Smart City Expo

Atlanta held Sept. 11-13,

2019. The Atlanta event is

the lone U.S. edition of

Smart City Expo

World Congress, a

global conference

held annually in

Barcelona

Are we ready for smarter cities?

2020 and BEYOND

THE FUTURE OF ISE

A high-tech urban future requires engineering expertise, education and collaboration

By Keith Albertson

January 2020 | ISE Magazine 27

on smart cities and smart urban solutions.

Amid a display of smart city products and applications,

experts at various panels agreed that a coordinated effort is

needed from governments, businesses and academia to make

such technology available and embraced by the public.

“This is our 21st century public works,” said Grace Sim-

rall, chief of civic innovation and technology for Louisville,

Kentucky.

Internet of things (IoT) communication already is widely

used by industry. Its next generation offers the potential to

make everyday devices smart and interactive rather than pro-

grammed merely to follow a predictable set of functions.

Connected cities can enhance life in several areas:

Environmental. The use of smart devices in transporta-

tion and utilities can reduce carbon emissions while saving

money and resources. Many homes and buildings now use

IoT technology for security, lighting and temperature adjust-

ment to manage energy use. Incorporating that technology

across an urban area is seen as a way to improve convenience,

comfort and sustainability.

Such connected buildings and homes “can provide cost

savings without impacting comfort and provide solutions eas-

ily scaled to multiple sizes of buildings,”

said Erika Gupta, technology manager

with the Ofﬁce of Energy Efﬁciency and

Renewable Energy at the U.S. Depart-

ment of Energy.

Transportation. Moving people

through crowded streets is a chal-

lenge everywhere, though sur-

veys show about half of

all car trips are 3 miles

or less. Autonomous

vehicles and micromo-

bility conveyances like scooters and bikes can reduce the vol-

ume of carbon-spewing vehicles on clogged roadways. Yet

that often means creating dedicated lanes and altering trafﬁc

laws for such vehicles, an issue many municipalities are facing.

“We need a mode for that last mile to transit systems,” said

Brandon Pollak, director for global engagement and strategy

for Bird scooters. “Micromobility infrastructure can improve

safety with bike lanes (and) get them off the sidewalks.”

One company, Tortoise, is developing scooters that include

training wheels and a camera and can be returned to a charg-

ing station or base by a remote operator.

Above the road, drones already are being tested for package

and food delivery in areas such as college campuses as another

way to beat street trafﬁc. And larger air taxis that can carry

commuters are on the horizon.

Easing mobility in crowded cities can also impact public

safety. For instance, smart trafﬁc lights can be timed to help

ﬁrst responders reach the scene of an accident faster.

Convenience. Many city residents now can obtain li-

censes and other documents, pay bills and get information

either via smartphones or public devices such as kiosks. These

enhancements can save time, eliminate long lines, cut labor

Photo by Picture Plane Ltd., courtesy of Sidewalk Labs

An artist’s rendition of the planned

Sidewalk Labs development on

Quayside along the Lake Ontario

waterfront in Toronto. It’s an

example of the kind of public-private

partnership experts say is needed to

convert to a smart city future.

28 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Are we ready for smarter cities?

costs and improve the consumer experience. Future applica-

tions may include online voting, though only when security

and transparency issues have been addressed.

Though the beneﬁts of smart technology are evident, there

still are challenges. Several speakers at the Atlanta expo dis-

cussed the remaining steps needed to create interconnected

communities. Each relies on cooperation among technology

experts, public leaders, businesses and residents.

“I don’t think the private sector can go it alone, nor can the

public sector,” Betsy Plattenburg, executive director of the

Curiosity Lab smart city test environment, said in an episode

of Problem Solved: The IISE Podcast. “And bringing the two

entities together with very different interests is a nice way to

advance innovation more quickly.”

“It’s not just the pursuit of technology itself but how to

harness technology to improve the quality of life,” Debra

Lam, managing director of smart cities and inclusive innova-

tion at Georgia Tech, told ISE. “I look at it as a continuous

improvement process.

“More collaboration is what’s necessary to move forward.

‘Smart cities’ isn’t always the right term. Sometimes that assumes

it’s only a city-led initiative, but it involves a lot more parties.”

Cities seek resources, expertise

The technology required to create a connected community

isn’t cheap; smaller cities, in particular, can struggle to ﬁt such

costs into their budgets. At the Atlanta expo, leaders from

cities of various sizes told of their challenges and successes in

adopting such technology.

“As mayor, our goal is to make sure all basic needs are met,”

said Frank Brocato, mayor of Hoover, Alabama, a southern

suburb of Birmingham with a population of about 85,000.

“But smaller cities don’t always have the ability to do this due

to limitation of resources.”

Because machines speak to each other at a much greater

speed compared to humans, 5G wireless technology is the

pipeline needed to transfer data. But 5G is still being imple-

mented in some areas and not widely available outside of ma-

jor urban hubs. Once it is fully in place, “all communities,

regardless of size or political persuasion, can be smart,” Lam

told a panel at the expo.

“Wireless represents the new level of public works that

cities must invest in,” Simrall said. “We know 6G, 7G will

come, and we have to prepare.”

The answer, experts say, is creating public-private partner-

The Smart City Expo Atlanta held Sept. 11-13, 2019, brought together leaders in government and industry to discuss the future

connectivity of communities. While internet of things technology makes such connections possible, most speakers agreed

challenges remain in taking the last step from the laboratory into the public square.

Photo by Keith Albertson | IISE

January 2020 | ISE Magazine 29

ships that allow municipalities to offer their greatest asset –

their infrastructure of roads, buildings and utilities – for busi-

nesses to introduce their products to the public in exchange

for the companies’ expertise and hardware. Such collabora-

tion can help even smaller cities integrate technology into

underserved areas. Private sponsors providing 5G capacity

and other technology allowed the suburban Atlanta city of

Peachtree Corners to set up the Curiosity Lab testing envi-

ronment within the city’s infrastructure (see related story on

Page 33).

“Cities as owners of the infrastructure can have a role as

a proving ground for technology to help it graduate into a

public environment,” said Brian Johnson, Peachtree Corners’

city manager.

“If we can bring together P3 (public-private partnership)

opportunities to engage public and private needs, P3 can

help attain equity and inclusion,” said Faye DiMassimo of

Deloitte.

Faris Oweis, chief instigator for Instigation Protocol,

cited examples of public-private partnerships in the use of

cryptocurrency technology for transportation and voting in

Seoul, Korea, and ways to improve traveler ﬂow in airports

by speeding up security lines.

“It takes risk tolerance, political will and a data mindset,”

he told a crowd at the Atlanta expo. “Collaboration between

cities and businesses is needed. The system currently is ineq-

uitable but offers a great opportunity for entrepreneurship.”

Another case of such collaboration is The Ray (theray.org),

a sustainable 18-mile stretch of Interstate 85 in west central

Georgia that includes embedded solar panels, charging and

tire pressure stations, roadside ecosystems and IoT connectiv-

ity for vehicle communication.

“Public entities recognize their roles,” The Ray executive

director Allie Kelly said. “Otherwise it takes a lot of differ-

ent companies to be involved. Cities can make infrastructure

available to experts in these ﬁelds.”

Still another example is in Toronto where Sidewalk Labs

– smart city subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent holding

company – plans to invest $1.3 billion to upgrade a mostly

vacant 12-acre section of industrial waterfront along Lake

Ontario into a connected community (quaysideto.ca). Those

plans include a mixed-use development of residential, retail

and ofﬁce spaces; extension of a light-rail system; redesigned

streets to reduce car use and promote biking and walking;

and installation of public Wi-Fi and data-collecting sensors

to guide housing and trafﬁc decisions. A third-party research

ﬁrm’s analysis determined the project could create 44,000

jobs and generate $4.3 billion in annual tax revenue.

Digital twin can simulate

smart city enhancements

Before committing resources to smart technology, commu-

nity leaders need to know how it might work in their public

space. One way to test this is through simulation models that

can demonstrate how smart devices interact with a city’s spe-

ciﬁc character.

A team of researchers at Georgia Tech discussed such mod-

els at the Smart City Digital Twin Convergence Workshop

held Sept. 16-17, 2019, in Atlanta, attended by representatives

from several U.S. cities. The virtual platforms are designed to

function like simulation in manufacturing by inputting data

to replicate IoT effects on a city’s infrastructure and analyze

the results.

“You take data on mobility, energy, water and build a sys-

tems approach,” Lam said. “It’s a real-time analysis so you

can see in real time the number of cars, pedestrians, trafﬁc

volume happening at a particular intersection.”

John Taylor, a professor in Tech’s School of Civil and Envi-

ronmental Engineering, published the ﬁrst research paper on

smart city digital twins in 2017 along with Neda Mohamma-

di, the city infrastructure analytics director of the Network

Dynamics Lab at Georgia Tech.

Because a digital twin uses data as it occurs, it can cre-

ate outcomes that vary due to changing conditions. A dig-

ital twin of Georgia Tech’s campus in Taylor’s lab showed

a building consuming more energy during a stretch of hot

weather.

“How do you integrate the data – mobility data and energy

data and water data – how do you combine those together to

create a more holistic view?” Lam said. “The next stage is

how can you utilize data to think more about predictive ana-

lytics – what can happen in the future depending on growth

and other trends, other variables.

“Then the third stage is to think about the prescriptive –

modeling what happens if a hurricane hits and how it will it

affect this site, affect mobility and systems scenarios that can

happen, not just future linear predictions. It provides more

ﬂexible frameworks for decision-makers to adapt and really

try to think about a virtual environment that replicates the

physical, then use it for better decision-making.”

A quest for security, transparency

The more data that ﬂows between machines, the greater the

risk such information could fall into the wrong hands. That’s

why efforts are needed both to keep information safe and

private and to manage the massive amount of data the IoT

creates.

Blockchain technology, originally created to track the use

of cryptocurrency, is seen as an option to secure public data

and enhance other services.

Elliott Chun of Chainhaus, a company specializing in

blockchain, artiﬁcial intelligence and data science, said ana-

lyzing data such as school attendance ﬁgures can help govern-

ments decide where to focus resources.

30 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Are we ready for smarter cities?

“When you make this kind of information available, it

starts to change the behavior and culture,” he said. “The

challenge is how to build trust between the city and residents,

and blockchain can be a tool to do this.”

In particular, voting is a public activity for which security

and traceability are crucial. One company featured at the At-

lanta expo, Voatz, has created a platform in which votes can

be cast from a smartphone using biometric identity veriﬁca-

tion and secured by blockchain technology. Hilary Braseth,

director of product for Voatz, told ISE the system already

has been used in more than 50 U.S. elections, including ex-

panded pilot programs in Denver and Utah in 2019.

“Since these initial governmental pilots, we’ve expanded

to ultimately be operational across 29 counties in ﬁve states,”

Braseth said. “Looking toward (2020), several states are plan-

ning to use Voatz for military/overseas voting, and a few

more are eyeing voters with disabilities.”

Yet learning the potential of such technology

and putting it to use effectively is a hurdle faced

by city leaders who may be unfamiliar with these

advancements.

“Making the ecosystem efﬁcient needs to hap-

pen in the design phase,” said Jay Smith, COO

of Factom, a blockchain innovations company.

“Government is slow. You need to start with a

small piece, then roll out improvements from in-

novation laboratories to work into existing sys-

tems. You don’t need to blow everything up and

start from scratch. There is incremental value to

starting piece by piece.

“Many still think blockchain is bitcoin. It will

ﬁnd its way because it’s an appropriate solution to

a lot of different things.”

“Smart cities require funding, which requires

political will,” said Samson Williams of Axes and

Eggs, a bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining com-

pany and blockchain consultant. “If your commu-

nity doesn’t trust you, innovation doesn’t happen.

You have to be transparent and accountable, and

blockchain can help.”

Securing personal privacy is another concern.

With cameras, sensors and other smart objects be-

coming more common, residents must adjust to

being watched by devices at all times.

“Cameras can be beautiful and they can be dan-

gerous,” said Ivo Rook, Sprint’s senior vice presi-

dent of the internet of things. “We need to design

restrictions from the beginning. But in the end,

we have to ask: Are we willing to give up a little

bit of privacy?”

That includes automated personal assistants al-

ready used in homes.

“People are more concerned about privacy,” said James

Leverette, research engineer with the Southern Company.

“We have to tell our consumers, ‘You have control. If you

don’t like a voice-controlled device, unplug it or throw it in a

drawer.’ They want to make sure they have control over their

network and do not have to give that up.”

Creating inclusion, educating the public

Even as 21st century 5G connectivity comes on line, many

city dwellers still lack broadband internet access. Experts in

Atlanta agreed communities must educate their populations

and ensure connectivity reaches all corners or risk creating

another level of socioeconomic division.

“Smart cities are a conduit for social justice,” Lam said dur-

ing the expo panel. “It can empower communities and be

a tool to address inequality. It can allow city managers and

Smart streetlamps from the Southern Company were among the devices on

display at the Smart City Expo Atlanta. The event brought together experts

in smart city technology and featured panel discussions and exhibits of

numerous products and services.

Photo by Keith Albertson | IISE

January 2020 | ISE Magazine 31

mayors access to better data to address inequality.”

In particular, students without internet access may be un-

able to log on for online learning, a practice now common-

place in afﬂuent areas.

“You need to provide connectivity beyond downtown to

underserved areas to help students,” said Charisse Stokes, ex-

ecutive director of TechMGM.

“People can’t fathom what infra-

structure you have to change, and

how you orchestrate that together

is crucial,” said Steve LeFrancois,

CTO of Enterprise Solutions, Pub-

lic Sector, for Verizon. “The same

policies and procedures have been in

place for decades, so the training and

education of the public are crucial.”

Clayton Banks is CEO of Silicon

Harlem, a social venture seeking

to bridge the tech gap in that New

York community where 40% of resi-

dents have no broadband access. Like

many at the Atlanta event, he said such enhancements can’t be

made available only to those who can afford them.

“Cities are not 100% prepared to be smart,” Banks said.

“A technology-enabled city needs to take into consideration

who lives in the city and how the infrastructure creates eq-

uity rather than a divide. It’s a wonderful opportunity if it can

be designed for equity. ... (But) you cannot be a smart city

if someone is not connected. If connectivity isn’t across the

board, people feel left out.”

To create trust and have residents buy into the advance-

ments offered, public ofﬁcials must use their ﬁnancial re-

sources wisely.

“Your budget is more than numbers – it represents your

values,” said Michael Nutter, former mayor of Philadelphia,

who noted how many cities are “struggling with disrupt-

ers” such as electric bikes, scooters

and other technology that require

thoughtful policies.

“The reason why cities exist is to

provide services. You need data to

do this properly.”

“Your budget is your moral and

social contract with your commu-

nity,” said Maurice Henderson, di-

rector of government partnerships

for Bird, manufacturer of electric

scooters. “Transportation equity is

needed and new mobility options

that give access to people in diverse

communities. It can be an equalizer, a democratizer.”

Once those needs are met, connecting residents to services

in a faster, better way could help level social playing ﬁelds.

Lam said blending technology with the human element is the

key to making cities smarter sooner.

“It’s a process,” she told ISE. “Cities have done a lot in the

physical environment and infrastructure with sensors, street-

lights, solar. We’ve made a lot of progress in virtual and digi-

‘It’s not just the pursuit of technology

itself but how to harness technology to

improve the quality of life. I look at it

as a continuous improvement process.’

– Debra Lam, Georgia Tech

managing director of smart cities and

inclusive innovation

2020 and Beyond: A look toward the horizon

With the third decade of the 21st century looming ahead, ISE is launching a series of stories to peer toward the horizon and see what

wonders await in the world of industrial and systems engineering.

In coming months, you’ll see articles from experts in various ISE ﬁelds on what innovations, disruptions and changes they foresee

in the years ahead. This month, we feature smart cities and connectivity. In February, we’ll examine the future of healthcare systems

and the impact on patient care. In subsequent issues, we’ll delve into different topic areas with the same idea: What do the problem-

solvers of today see in their crystal balls for tomorrow?

We welcome your input and ideas. Share your views in a letter to the editor at kalbertson@iise.org or join the conversation in

Connect at connect.iise.org.

2020 and BEYOND

THE FUTURE OF ISE

32 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Are we ready for smarter cities?

tal infrastructure but what we haven’t done as much is think

about integration of it all into the social infrastructure. That is

the third level, how people relate with the physical infrastruc-

ture and move seamlessly between layers. It’s still very sepa-

rate but we have to connect it at the very end. That involves

the level of literacy and application of what we are trying to

accomplish or do rather than just trying to be fancy.”

Adapting to this new reality may take time. In a recent epi-

sode of Problem Solved: The IISE Podcast (podcast.iise.org), Plat-

tenburg likened today’s transition to autonomous devices to

the 20th century adjustment to self-operating elevators that

did not require an operator.

“Today, all of us would think that’s ridiculous if we got on

an elevator and somebody else pushed the buttons,” she said.

“We’re going to be slow to adapt to that and feel comfortable

with that.”

Plattenburg cited surveys that showed while a majority of

younger people are more comfortable riding in autonomous

vehicles, older generations are less trusting of the technology

and still need more convincing.

“I think it’s going to be a generational thing,” she said.

“It’s going to take us a while to be comfortable with the new

technology because we’re giving up control.”

Yet the plus side of people being able to depend on automa-

tion to get around and live better as they grow older could

help bridge that acceptance gap.

“I think as people see how it will change their lives for the

better and not just in terms of control, they’ll see they have

more control over their lives,” Plattenburg said. “I think it’s

baby steps.” 

Smart city gadgets connect with tomorrow

Here are a few of the high-tech devices displayed at the Smart City Expo in Atlanta in September that could be part of an urban setting

in the near future.

The Southern Company’s Smart Home on display at the

Smart City Expo Atlanta included centralized temperature

controls; smart light bulbs and outlets that save energy;

a kitchen featuring a combination smoke and carbon

monoxide alarm, indoor camera and programmable

Behmor coffee maker; smart locks and a doorbell

camera; solar panels; and an electric vehicle charging

station. “Younger buyers are showing greater interest

in connectivity, it’s very important to them with 5G. And

a lot of those 55 and older also are tech savvy,” said

James Leverette, research engineer with the Southern

Company.

Photo by Keith Albertson | IISE

Valqari offered a demonstration of its smart drone delivery

mailbox system at the Curiosity Lab opening Sept. 11 in

Peachtree Corners, Georgia. The system includes delivery of

items dropped into a smart mailbox that opens on delivery

and locks afterward. The two-way communication technology

allows for delivery of packages, traditional mail and parcel

products and eliminates the risk of damage and theft.

Photo courtesy of Valqari

IKE is a maker of

interactive kiosks

that can be placed in

high-trafﬁc areas. They

provide visitors with a

touchscreen offering

information on dining,

shopping, lodging, arts

and culture, attractions,

government services,

parks, employment and

transit information. They

also offer emergency

communications, are

ADA-compliant and

designed to ﬁt within the

aesthetics of a city.

Photo by Keith Albertson | IISE

January 2020 | ISE Magazine 33

On ﬁrst glance, a small city in the Atlanta sub-

urbs only seven years old hardly seems the site of

a high-tech revolution. Yet Peachtree Corners, an

upscale town of 45,000 residents about 20 miles

northeast of Atlanta, has staked its claim as a Deep

South version of Silicon Valley.

The city recently invested money and infrastructure to

create Curiosity Lab, a high-tech environment for testing

driverless vehicles and other smart city technology. It in-

cludes a 1.5-mile autonomous vehicle test track of dedi-

cated lanes, plus short-range communications units such

as video cameras, smart trafﬁc lights and lighting able to

transmit data to a control center. It is all powered by 5G

wireless and 1G of ﬁber optic connections.

“We’re trying to create a technology sandbox where any-

body can come and play,” Betsy Plattenburg, executive di-

rector of Curiosity Lab, told ISE. “We’re providing certain

toys, or anyone is welcome to bring their own to try them

out.”

The area incorporates some 500 acres with 7,500 em-

ployees and about 1,000 residents. The roadway through

a technology park offers natural obstacles such as curves,

trees and a 13% grade aimed at giving autonomous vehicles

a taste of real-world trafﬁc conditions.

“There are a lot of mobility closed courses that are popu-

lar, where you can go in and do all kinds of testing, but

they’re closed, they’re not a real world environment,” City

Manager Brian Johnson said. “When technology graduates

from a controlled laboratory environment, like a closed

driving course, where does it go to get integrated into the

real world but not in an environment that is so complicated

that it isn’t safe?

“We created a crawl-walk-run place where it can gradu-

ate from the closed course. ... You can keep it secure and

graduate from there, and now you are ready for midtown.”

One such vehicle began making daily rounds last fall:

Olli, an autonomous electric minibus that holds up to eight

passengers on weekday runs that includes stops at ofﬁces,

hotels, city hall and a local brewpub (see accompanying ar-

ticle).

The city debuted its facilities on Sept. 11, 2019, to coin-

cide with the Smart City Expo Atlanta. After local and state

ofﬁcials greeted a couple hundred invitees, students at the

nearby Paul Duke STEM High School piloted two drones

carrying a ceremonial ribbon to be cut.

At the demo, visitors rode Olli around the city hall park-

ing lot, watched a Valqari delivery drone drop a “smart

package” into a connected parcel box and saw a demonstra-

tion of a Tortoise scooter monitored by remote control.

The lab includes a 25,000-square-foot technology incu-

bator that includes a coding boot camp and classroom space

for students, including researchers from Georgia Tech, a

project partner.

“We realized this isn’t just mobility, there are a lot of

smart city components here, too,” Johnson said. “The street

of the future is what we have here. It’s where the light poles

A ‘sandbox’ for IoT testing, integration

Curiosity Lab near Atlanta offers a test environment for connectivity

By Keith Albertson

The city of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, created the Curiosity Lab smart city test environment as an economic development

attraction.

Photo by David Brandt | IISE

34 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

A ‘sandbox’ for IoT testing, integration

Olli the driverless shuttle learns on the road

Olli, an autonomous electric shuttle, began

running a daily route along the Curiosity Lab

test track in Peachtree Corners, Georgia,

in October 2019. The 3D-printed minibus

can carry up to eight passengers and reach

speeds up to 25 mph.

Its name is Olli. It’s smart, but like any youngster with a lot to learn, Olli expands its

knowledge and experience in a real-world classroom setting.

Olli is an autonomous electric vehicle created by Local Motors and is being tested

in various cities. It recently was on exhibit at the Smart City Expo Atlanta and at the

debut of the Curiosity Lab test environment in suburban Peachtree Corners.

A few weeks later, the minibus began regular daily runs along the lab’s 1.5-mile

dedicated track along a technology ofﬁce park, interacting daily with motorists and

pedestrians.

Though a safety steward remains at the ready to pilot the shuttle by joystick through

any snags, the goal is to help Olli “learn” the habits of human drivers while navigating

inclines and curves on its journey, the goal being to work out any bugs before it

enters into busier trafﬁc. It is seen as a viable transit option in locales such as college

campuses, business parks, airports and military bases.

“We have some great opportunities to see how Olli is going to operate in these

conditions,” said Marcilyn “Marci” Patterson, ﬂeet project manager for Local Motors.

“But we do have those safety stewards on board, so if there are issues to see whether

Olli can adjust or not, it will still be a safe ride for our riders.”

From October through January, Olli began its daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. workday, moving along at 5-7 mph, though it is capable of speeds up

to 25 mph. It completes a circuit of the 3-mile route in about 15 to 20 minutes while making regular stops at ofﬁces, hotels and a brewpub.

“We like to think of Olli as a toddler, and Olli is learning just like a toddler would learn, by experience,” said Betsy Plattenburg, Curiosity

Lab’s executive director. “Olli is learning every day, different things on different days.”

Jeremiah Trnka, a Local Motors safety steward and trainer, credits the Curiosity Lab course with helping the shuttle build its “muscle

memory” by learning on the road.

“This is a really amazing space that has been created here,” he said. “This is really a great way for us to get Olli out there in the real world

and do some real-world testing by dealing with trafﬁc, pedestrians and all these sorts of things.”

Safety steward Thomas Clifford explained how Olli operates in both “human mode” with the steward in charge and autonomous “robot

mode.” The shuttle includes two GPS antennas, six cameras, ﬁve radar (sensing sound) and six lidar (sensing light) mounted on the

front and back. They are able to “see” road conditions, obstacles, pedestrians and approaching vehicles in a 360-degree panorama. That

information is fed into Olli’s “brain” and applied to the algorithms that guide its decision-making.

Inside, Olli features a monitor showing the programmed route, brake and controls that the steward can use to switch between modes and

pilot the vehicle when needed. The boxy 13-foot shuttle can carry up to eight passengers who can see out on all sides in a glass-enclosed

cabin.

During a ride around the course, Patterson pointed out that the steward takes control only when Olli enters regular trafﬁc lanes either due

to road construction or intersection crossovers. Though the vehicle can mostly control its own behavior, the unpredictability of human drivers

is the X factor for which autonomous devices must learn to react. And while Olli learns how to cope with trafﬁc, ﬂesh-and-blood motorists

must adjust to driverless cars as well.

“We can gain a familiarity with how Olli handles various trafﬁc situations,” Trnka said. “Olli is programmed to wait for a clear path in order

to go across (an intersection.) Well, people frequently get impatient and don’t want to stop and let us go through, so sometimes we have to

play a little bit of a dance with the other drivers.

“One of the huge beneﬁts to Olli being out here is that it gives us that real-world experience and it only makes the software better in the

long run.”

Local Motors builds Olli via 3D-printing technology in local microfactories rather than large plants. That provides jobs in those communities

and makes it easier to adapt to new vehicles as they change.

For more, visit the company’s website, localmotors.com. You can watch a video of Olli’s ride through the Peachtree Corners Curiosity Lab

course at www.iise.org.

Photo by David Brandt | IISE

January 2020 | ISE Magazine 35

can talk to each other, can talk to the cars, can talk to all the

trafﬁc signals, can talk to the phones of the people walking

on the sidewalk – it can talk to all of them.”

As a result, several companies already have expressed in-

terest in using the facilities to test their technology.

“We realize what we have here is the ability to create

this innovation around smart cities, IoT and mobility and

bring all these players together who might not meet each

other otherwise,” Plattenburg said. “We have interest from

all over the world from people who want to be part of the

system.”

The project is the kind of public-private partnership

experts say is crucial to deploying such technology on a

wide scale. The lab’s 5G wireless connectivity is provided

by sponsor partner Sprint, which offered its engineering

expertise to Peachtree Corners.

“I believe (this kind of project) has a lot of merits and de-

serves thought and encouragement,” said Ivo Rook, senior

vice president for the internet of things with Sprint. “It puts

everything under a single policy and allows the operation

of technology on public roads. It’s that type of project we

need to create, not just the technology infrastructure itself.”

Peachtree Corners developed Curiosity Lab as an eco-

nomic development tool to attract high-tech ﬁrms. In do-

ing so, the city hopes to gain from the exposure as visitors

come to test devices and spend money on food, lodging and

ofﬁce space.

Despite that investment, the city is not charging compa-

nies to use its facilities. It also does not require intellectual

property rights for any technology created, respects propri-

etary information and has liability insurance to cover any

accidents.

“We facilitate innovation; we’re not the innovators,”

Plattenburg said on Problem Solved: The IISE Podcast. “We

provide a tech playground for people to bring their tech

toys to, then learn something and go off into the world.”

“When you combine all those things in a living labora-

tory environment in a major technology park, with people

living and working here, we don’t think it exists anywhere

in the world,” Johnson said.

To learn more, visit curiositylabptc.com. 

Peachtree Corners featured a scale model of its Curiosity Lab

test environment in the exhibit hall of the Smart City Expo in

Atlanta held Sept. 11-13, 2019.

Photo by Keith Albertson | IISE

An image from a promotional video for Curiosity Lab shows a Valqari delivery drone and the autonomous electric vehicle Olli, at

left, in front of Peachtree Corners City Hall.

Photo courtesy of Curiosity Lab