Rodrigo Barreto, Darwin’s lead architect, has written this overview of Darwin’s inspiration, achievements and plans for the future. It was originally posted in Portuguese on Portal 5G.
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Mobile and satellite communication services have historically developed in parallel. At times, the satellite communications industry has offered telephony services to end users, with the most notable examples including Thuraya, Globalstar and Iridium. These services, however, have limited data communication capacity and relatively low adoption. Otherwise, companies specialising in satellite communications have focused on facilitating the interconnection between radio base stations and telephone exchanges as the main way of integrating the two technological strands.
Thus there is a gap between satellite communications providers and terrestrial mobile service providers, each focusing on the area where they have the greatest competitive advantage and rarely looking for joint solutions for user access. The mobile segment has not been able to develop full geographic coverage for data services, and the satellite segment has not been used to fill these gaps in coverage in an integrated manner. This is what inspired the Darwin Project.
For a technological innovation proposal to gain momentum, the timing needs to be right. In 2019, when the concept for the Darwin Project began to take shape, the following clear trends were already visible:
The idea of combining satellite and terrestrial mobile service networks to enable seamless user access was born. This would allow satellite and terrestrial networks to complement each other, enabling vehicles to benefit from uninterrupted connectivity on the move. Data platform services were added to this concept; these would allow companies to visualise their fleet telemetry data and enjoy specialised services according to their vertical of operation. Finally, taking into account the fact that the future of mobility is tied to autonomy, the theme of connected autonomous mobility joined the mix.
The idea immediately resonated with high-level managers at Telefónica, a company at which Daniela Petrovic, one of the founders of the Darwin Project, had long been acting as delivery director on large transformation projects. In addition to filling several innovation gaps in which Telefónica had an interest, such as use cases for 5G and advanced cases of machine-to-machine connectivity, the idea could benefit from a similar initiative where Telefónica, Hispasat and Renfe had worked together since 2015 to enable continuous broadband access on Spanish high-speed trains.
Telefónica decided that there was merit in offering seed capital – a specific financing model for business projects in their initial phase, usually used by startups – to explore the concept. For greater flexibility, the independent startup format was chosen. This allowed the new company, Darwin Innovation Group, to compete for a grant, in a matched funding format, from the UK Space Agency (UKSA). With the seed capital sponsored by Telefónica UK and a grant approved by UKSA, the Darwin Project was kicked off.
The first phase of the project, under the supervision of the European Space Agency (ESA), the operational arm administering the UKSA grant, served to consolidate the concept. At this stage, in partnership with Telefónica UK, Hispasat and the University of Glasgow, Darwin worked to:
Following this, or in some cases in parallel, Darwin initiated practical activities to demonstrate the concepts behind the project. These included:
This process culminated in field testing when we used the Connected Mobile Test Unit to assess connectivity levels as we travelled around Cornwall, known for its challenges in relation to both satellite and terrestrial connectivity due to irregular terrain and dense vegetation in certain areas. The demonstration was a success; while connectivity was available 90% of the time for terrestrial mobile services and 80% of the time for satellite communications services, our integrated terrestrial and satellite solution maintained a connection to cloud services for more than 99% of the time. All tested services, such as streaming live video, transferring large files, teleconferencing and browsing web pages, maintained an almost unchanged quality of experience for the user, who could not even notice the transitions taking place between terrestrial and satellite networks.
Separately, Darwin had the opportunity to compete for one of ESA’s new matched funding projects in the area of mobility. Darwin won the tender with the proposal to develop a passenger transport service at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, where both ESA and Darwin are located. The Darwin Autonomous Shuttle service is differentiated by its use of a self-driving shuttle with uninterrupted connectivity using 5G and satellite communications. The main sponsor this time is the insurance company Aviva, which is interested in having access to data to develop new insurance products for autonomous vehicles.
A new Pandora’s box had been opened, and Darwin found itself confronted with the regulations necessary to operate an autonomous passenger service in the UK. With the help of public bodies such as the CCAV (Centre for Connected Autonomous Vehicles), we were able to identify and fulfil the main administrative requirements:
During the pilot operation, the necessary operational processes were developed and the safety operators were trained. These operators, for legal reasons, need to be inside the vehicle to intervene in its control if necessary. After this phase and with the appropriate approvals, the service moved to a regular operation phase with open access to campus pass holders and their guests.
As can be seen, three years of intense activities have passed and have already borne much fruit. But there is much more to come in our plans for the future:
Finally, we are hungry for innovation and have an immense desire to help create a more sustainable future in the area of mobility. On this journey, we would be honoured to consider commercial proposals to work closely with other companies and institutions.
Rodrigo Barreto, Darwin Lead Architect
Darwin Innovation Group is an Oxfordshire-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.
