FORUM8 Design Festival 2018-3Days+Eve
Date: Nov. 13, 2018 (Eve), 14-16 (3Days) / Venue: Shinagawa Intercity Hall
  (Up&Coming 2019 New Year issue)










Tue. Nov. 13 Eve    Wed. Nov. 14 Day1 Thu. Nov. 15 Day2   Fri. Nov. 16 Day3

 Day1 11/14 Wed The 19th UC-win/Road Conference
Autonomous Driving Conference
   

Accelerating Development of Technology and System towards Realization of Automated Driving

Day1 of Design Festival (November 14, 2018) started with an opening address by Yuji Ito, President and Chief Executive Officer of FORUM8. Following this, Mr. Naohiko Kakimi, Director, ITS and Autonomous Driving Promotion Office, Automobile Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) gave a special lecture entitled "Our Commitment to Autonomous Driving in METI" to start <Automated Driving Conference> of "The 19th UC-win/Road Conference". First of all, he expressed expectation on "mobility revolution" and "rich life". Then he summarized the efforts towards technological development, system development, excavation of leading business operators, and improvement in social reception to be required for them. Regarding development of the legal system, he mentioned "Outline of system development for automated driving systems" formulated in April, and explained the examination status of the following points: 1) Integrated safety securement, 2) Concept of safety securement of automated driving vehicles, 3) The way that traffic rules should be, and 4) Responsibility relationship. Then he gave an outline about the policies and demonstration in the 2nd stage of "Automated driving (expansion of systems and services)" of The Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) led by Cabinet Office, which he has been working for as a sub leader of the taskforce since April. Regarding this, he also mentioned the area for the planned demonstration test in the Tokyo waterfront area and detailed contents to implement.
Yuji Ito, President and Chief
Executive Officer of FORUM8
In addition, as concerned projects that METI work on its own, he introduced the following items: 1) following manned "truck convoy travelling" using the CACC (Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control) system and the LKA (Lane Keeping Assistant) system in Joshin-Etsu Expressway and Shin-Tomei Expressway, 2) Demonstration experiments about mobility services using unmanned automated travelling (last-mile autonomous travelling, terminal traffic systems) in Ibaraki and Fukui Prefectures.

Mr. Naohiko Kakimi, Director,
ITS and Autonomous Driving Promotion Office,
Automobile Division,
Manufacturing Industries Bureau,
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

The following special lecture was given by Mr. Gaku Nakazato, Director, New-Generation Mobile Communications Office, Land Mobile Communications Division, Radio Department, Telecommunications Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), entitled "Trends towards the mobility system of the next generation and commitments of MIC".
At the beginning, he summarized the positions of "Construction of the mobility system of the next generation" in "Future Investment Strategy 2018", "Public-Private ITS Initiative/Roadmaps 2018", "Outline of system development for automated driving systems", and information-communication infrastructure development in the 2nd stage of "Automated driving (expansion of systems and services)" of SIP. At the same time, he also gave a brief account of government-private large projects related to automated driving proceeding in Western countries and trends of technological development and marketing for automated driving in and outside the nation. Then he reviewed the flow of progress of mobile communication systems, and advanced his speech into the 5th Generation Mobile Communications system (5G), which is expected to have almost real-time control required for automated driving with ultra-low latency enabled by acceleration and capacity enlargement of mobile communications as new technology of 2020's. MIC is planning to commercialize 5G by 2020 when the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games will be held, and dispatch demonstration of examples of specific uses. MIC is planning to assign frequencies for 5G to companies by March 2019, and also conducting demonstration tests along with research and development. Therefore, he also mentioned the overview of the demonstration projects, their partial outcome, and ongoing activities. In addition, according to him, MIC plans not only to invite ideas widely about utilization of 5G including automated driving but also focus on developing diverse kinds of technologies and communication environment on its own by 2020 as a target year.

Mr. Gaku Nakazato, Director,
New-Generation Mobile Communications Office,
Land Mobile Communications Division,
Radio Department, Telecommunications Bureau,
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC)

At the end of the morning part, a special lecture entitled "Activities towards realization of automated driving services" was given by Mr. Katsuya Abe, Director, ITS Policy and Program Office, Road Traffic Control Division, Road Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).
As the background of why Road Bureau makes efforts to realization of automated driving in the hilled rural areas, he explained some problems of mobility such as rapid aging and decline of public transportation. He also mentioned the present situation that functions including medical services, administration, finance, and shopping are put together around many of "Michinoeki (roadside stations)" established all over the nation at about 1,400 points. He talked about the circumstances that had made MLIT start social experiments of automated driving services using road-vehicle cooperation based in the "roadside stations" situated in hilly and mountainous areas in the 2017 fiscal year with budget support from SIP. The experiments have been conducted to examine 1) Reaction of the road administrators such as road structure that contributes to automated driving, 2) Regional environment such as weather conditions and communication conditions, 3) Cost, 4) Social receptivity, and 5) economic effects on the region. As part of them, he talked about the change in awareness and requests of the residents about automated driving before and after the experiments seen through the questionnaire about social receptivity, and the event (problem) that automated driving was switched to manual driving during the experiments. Subsequently, he mentioned the aim of this fiscal year, that is, social implementation by 2020, and that put emphasis on verification of whether this can be realized as a business model. He gave a brief account of the business model with automated driving of ongoing demonstration experiments based in "Minami Alps Murahase" (Ina city in Nagano pref.) and its operation system. Besides, he introduced activities such as 1) support for automated driving by providing information at the merging area of expressway, 2) developing electronic road databases with three-dimensional point cloud data in consideration of utilizing them for automated driving.

Mr. Katsuya Abe, Director,
ITS Policy and Program Office,
Road Traffic Control Division, Road Bureau,
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism (MLIT)

In the afternoon, Mr. Keiji Furuya, a member of the House of Representatives (serving as President of "Parliamentary group for considering Automobile Culture" etc.) gave a guest greeting speech. While mentioning the present situation of a labor shortage in Gifu pref., his local region as an example and expectation for the Chuo Shinkansen, he envisioned the possibilities in brought about by automated driving, which will become full-fledged based on utilization of 5G to come. He explained the view that the efforts in the concerned area would be the keystone of growth strategies.

Mr. Keiji Furuya,
President of "Parliamentary group for considering Automobile Culture",
Member of the House of Representatives

The first special lecture was "Efforts towards realization of automated driving" given by Mr. Takahiro Hirasawa, Director, Automated Driving Strategy Office, Engineering Policy Division, Road Bureau, MLIT.
He outlined the significance and definition of automated driving, and trends of automated driving technologies of automobile manufacturers. At the same time, he also explained the latest version of "Public-Private ITS Initiative/Roadmaps", which draws a scenario for marketing and implementation of services of automated driving systems, such as realizing level-3 automated driving with a private car on expressways by 2020 (by 2025 for level-4). Then, partly because MLIT is concerned in "Concept of safety ensuring of vehicles" and "responsibility relationship" among the main activities in "Outline of system development for automated driving systems", he explained a wide range of activities as follows: 1) Establishment of Autonomous Driving Strategy Headquarters in MLIT, 2) Leading participation in formulation of the international vehicle safety standards regarding automated driving, 3) Preparation of "Guideline to safety technologies for automated driving vehicles, 4) Examination of car maintenance and inspection that support automated driving technologies 5) Establishment of Transport policy council "Subcommittee for system development regarding advanced technologies including automated driving", 6) Examination of liability for damages for automated driving, 7) Examination regarding introduction of automated driving vehicles into vehicle transportation business, 8) Dissemination and awareness raising of "Safety Support Car S" and establishment of a system for evaluating and publicizing performance of automatic brake and as part of this, 9) Attention reminding for users regarding the automated driving system on level 2, and 10) Demonstration experiments (last-mile autonomous travelling, truck convoy travelling etc.).

Mr. Takahiro Hirasawa, Director,
Automated Driving Strategy Office,
Engineering Policy Division,
Road Bureau, MLIT

The last special lecture for the conference was given entitled "NPA's Efforts towards realization of automated driving" by Mr. Toshihiro Sugi, Director, Autonomous Driving Planning Office, Traffic Planning Division, Traffic Bureau, National Police Agency (NPA).
He mentioned that the aged people account for a high proportion in the number of traffic accident fatalities in Japan. Then he mentioned compatibility of automated driving with the basic idea of the Fundamental Traffic Safety Program that has reached 10th. He then said that they aim at realizing Level 3 on the expressways by 2020, referring to NPA as being involved most with "What traffic rules should be" in "Outline of system development for automated driving systems". Subsequently, he showed his own point of view that automated driving is an indispensable technology for reduction of traffic accidents or mitigation of traffic jam and that he supports its progress. Reflecting these points, he presented research and development of NPA towards practical implementation of automated driving systems as follows: 1) Formulation of "Guidelines for public road testing of automated driving systems" and "Standards for managing application of approval for use of road regarding public road testing of remote automated driving systems" to prepare an environment for public road demonstration test, 2) Examination of the driver’s obligation, how to keep data, traffic rules with the relationship between other party concerned and automated driving as its core, including Review of Road Traffic Act, 3) Participation in global discussion, for example, regarding how to ensure compatibility of automated driving with regulation of Geneva Conventions, 4) Practical implementation of automated driving such as the technology for providing signal data and technology for providing detection information about vehicles and pedestrians etc.

Mr. Toshihiro Sugi, Director,
Autonomous Driving Planning Office,
Traffic Planning Division,
Traffic Bureau, National Police Agency

After these special lectures, the first half of the afternoon part was concluded by "Virtual Reality Design Studio UC-win/Road Presentation". First of all, FORUM8 staff in charge made presentation entitled "Case studies and future vision of VR simulation – Utilization of automated driving/ADAS package and game engines". The contents included the overview of "Hokkaido VR Promotion Council" that started this year, characteristic user examples utilizing UC-win/Road Driving Simulator (DS), major new functions of the latest version of UC-win/Road (Ver.13, released in Feb. 2018) and subsequent Ver. 13.1 (released in Nov. 2018), Outline of functions of the automated driving and ADAS package planned to be released in 2019, "Railroad operator VR" using game engine, an integrated all-in-one 3DCG application "Shade3D series", and "VR-Cloud ® Next" supporting big data.
Finally, FORUM8 staff in charge of development made presentation entitled "The latest information of UC-win/Road, and new development of built-in status and VR-Cloud ® Next". The speaker’s explanation included new functions of "UC-win/Road Ver. 13.1" coming in the market immediately, UAV plug-in option Ver.3, and functions of UC-win/Road under development. Moreover, the speaker also explained the development concept and functions of VR-Cloud ®Next, its system configuration, use examples, and development roadmap in the future etc. while performing demonstration.

Case studies and future vision of VR simulation The latest information of UC-win/Road,
and new development of built-in status
and VR-Cloud ® Next
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  The 17th 3D VR Simulation Contest on Cloud,
Award-giving ceremony
Day1  

Works That Challenge Potential of VR, Representing Bold Idea and Original View of the World

The award-giving ceremony of "the 17th 3D VR Simulation Contest on Cloud" was held in the second half of the afternoon on Day1.
Prior to this, at the meeting (October 16) for selecting nomination works, 10 works were nominated out of a large number of entries applied by Oct. 9. In consideration of the result of public voting on Cloud (Public voting via VR-Cloud® conducted from Nov. 2 to 11, prizes were decided at the examination meeting held at Tokyo Headquarters of FORUM8 on Nov. 13, consisting of Prof. Fumio Seki, Chief of the judging committee, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Nihon University; Mr. Hiroo Kasagi, Judge, Representative of NPO Chiikizukuri Kobo, and Mr. Tatsuoki Inagaki, Judge, Director, State of the Art Technologies Expression Association.
Grand Prix was given to "VR simulation for Hokkaido Shinkansen Sapporo station design and construction" by Hokkaido Railway Company. It represented the image of Hokkaido Shinkansen Sapporo station (planned to open in 2030 fiscal year) after starting operation using VR along with the predicted volume of passengers walking in the station by crowd simulation. While conventional railway simulation tended to be created through the viewpoint of railway company, this work put emphasis on the viewpoint of passengers. Moreover, it was also highly evaluated (by Prof. Seki) from the strategic aspect that it was created for building consensus of the project to open in 10 years ahead, which actually contributed to facilitating the project.
Excellence Award (Semi Grand Prix) was given to 2 works this time. One of them was "3DVR of Winding tower in Shime mining factory and Related facilities (in 1964)". 3D (three-dimensional) VR and 3D point cloud data were applied to Abandoned (former) Shime mining factory "Winding tower", which is an Important Cultural Property of Japan, to represent the current and past facilities and surrounding environment including underground space. In addition to beautiful shape of the work and understandable expression of the underground space, the work showed their enthusiasm to bring up the regional treasure, according to the comments of Mr. Kasagi.
The other one was "VR data for ship operation simulator" by Akishima Laboratories (Mitsui Zosen) Inc. This is VR for the ship operation simulator created for the purpose of ship operation training and researches. This models multiple areas of sea with narrow width and many sailing ships such as the Kanmon Straits. Its social significance is appreciated (Mr. Inagaki) after the access bridge failure of the Kansai International Airport (KIX) due to Typhoon No. 21 (September 2018), which is still fresh in people’s memory.
Juries (from left) Mr. Tatsuoki Inagaki, Prof. Fumio
Seki (chairman of the committee), Mr. Hiroo Kasagi
Award winners

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  Book Launching Lecture Day1  

Latest Books That Represent Individual Specialty, Thoughts with Them

Fixing the timing with this Design Festival, FORUM8 published 3 books from FORUM8 Publishing. Lectures by each author were set at the end of Day1.
First of all, Mr. Tatsuoki Inagaki, author of "Learning Information Engineering through VR" and judge of the 17th 3D VR Simulation Contest on Cloud mentioned his basic stance on his 4th publication of "Learning through VR" series. Positioning that the present time is the border line for moving to Society 5.0, he pointed out that it will be important how to collaborate with information communication technology (ICT) including i-Construction in specific in order for the area of infrastructure development to contribute realization of "super smart society". As the course for the time, he mentioned "To make construction site the state-of-the-art plant", "To introduce the most advanced supply chain management into the construction site", and "Breaking the regulation of construction site, continuous improvement", and showed the idea that "Innovation" is the keyword in realizing them. Moreover, from the viewpoint of utilizing ICT for disaster prevention and mitigation, he talked about some approaches that attract attention, including "Disaster information hub" and "Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) for i-Construction" regarding to construction ICT.
Mr. Tatsuoki Inagaki
President of Pave & Road How-To Way
Technology Association

Next, Toshiro Mise, author of "System Development for Super Smart Society" and Technical Adviser of FORUM8 mentioned the background for which super-smart society, including the paradigm shift from "the age of goods" to "the age of affairs", social problems such as global warming and declining birthrate and aging, and advancing ICT environment to the contrary. In addition, living-related systems are surrounded by various risks (abnormal). Therefore, it is necessary to grasp irregular conditions in a wide range to get safety, security, and comfort. In the age when everything can be connected symbolized by IoT, range of objects to grasp becomes wider. Under such circumstances, if one should understand everything through the whole body, one tends to get stuck at the stage of system analysis. As a solution for this, he proposed a method for innovating living by overlooking the entire aspect efficiently and analyzing it, and incorporating ICT into life facilities. He drew a scheme that safe and secure super smart society can be realized through this.
Technical Advisor of FORUM8,
Mr. Toshiro Mise

The final lecture for book publication was given for "Small Talk about FEM" I. Math essay II. Miscellany essay" by Mr. Yoshiaki Harada, the author and FEM Advisor of FORUM8. As he had been involved with Finite Element Method (FEM) since early 1970’s, it can be said that he is the pioneer in this area. He had been writing essays on FEM, e.g. its advantages and disadvantages once a month since 18 years ago, when he was running a company specializing FEM he had founded. When the number of essays reached 68 in 2009, he published a book privately collecting the results so far. Later, he retired from the top management of the company for health reasons, and the company he had founded was closed by M&A. Then he moved the place for carrying his series of essays to his own website "FEMINGWAY" till the early 2018 (122nd essay). Selecting 130 essays based on them and dividing them into the 1st volume for technical contents and the 2nd volume for other stories, he created a book to communicate the world he can draw because he had been involved with FEM for nearly a half century to younger people.
FEM Advisor, Mr. Yoshiaki Harada
(Written by Takashi Ikeno)
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