Aldenhoven Testing Center Officially Inaugurated
After a period of intense preparations, the Aldenhoven Testing Center of RWTH Aachen University GmbH, ATC for short, was officially inaugurated on April 11, 2014. The former site of the Emil Mayrisch mine is now being used for research and development in automotive engineering.
The vehicle dynamics and traffic simulation area, which has been in operation since 2009, has now been complemented by an oval circuit, a rough road track, a braking test track, a handling course, and a hill section.
“The test center is open for use by small and medium-sized enterprises who seek to conduct mobility research projects that require a testing site,” explains Maciej Foltanski, spokesperson for the ATC management.
On Friday, The NRW Minister for Economics, Energy, Industry and Commerce, Garrelt Duin, and Wolfgang Spelthahn, District Administrator of the District of Düren, officially inaugurated the site in front of an audience of invited guests.
Testing Center for Next-Generation Automotive Technologies
"The ATC will contribute to finding modern mobility solutions, for example to enhance vehicle safety and energy efficiency,” explains Minister Duin. Researchers from RWTH Aachen set out to develop and test modern assistance systems that support the driver in critical driving situations.
Thus, aside from providing vehicle test facilities for performance testing and development, the ATC facilitates research on innovative mobility and electromobility concepts, including cleaner and more efficient propulsion and powertrain systems, such as hybrid propulsion and fuel cell systems. In close cooperation with industry, new powertrains can be created, implemented, tested and refined at one and the same facility.
automotiveGATE Environment
But apart from the typical infrastructure elements of an automotive testing site, the ATC also features an automotiveGATE test and development facility, which makes it possible to simulate the signal environment for the European satellite navigation system Galileo. Thus the ATC offers the opportunity to test components of and applications for the Galileo system before it goes online in 2017.
Furthermore, the automotiveGATE environment enables researchers to conduct experiments on satellite-based driver assistance systems.