How ENVELOPE’s Dutch Trial Site Is Using Digital Twins for Connected Mobility

At ENVELOPE’s Dutch Trial Site in Helmond, HAN University of Applied Sciences is using Digital Twin technology to support the testing of connected and automated mobility services. The Digital Twin has been built with the CARLA simulator and Unreal Engine 5. This creates a realistic digital version of the vehicle, the road environment, and the wider testing area.

The model also includes the Automotive Campus in Helmond, where KPN and TNO host the site’s 5G network and related functionalities. V-Tron’s vehicle is represented in the Digital Twin too, which allows the team to connect what’s happening in the physical environment with what’s shown digitally.

Within ENVELOPE Use Case 3, the team is testing real-time digital twinning of the vehicle and its surroundings. The site’s 5G network supports low-latency communication, so the virtual environment can respond quickly to changes taking place in the real world.

One of the main goals is to understand how advanced 5G capabilities, such as Quality on Demand, affect the quality and reliability of the visualisation. In simple terms, the team is checking whether the network can provide the right level of performance when the application needs it.

This work also creates opportunities for mixed reality testing and teleoperation support.

For example, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems such as emergency braking can be tested with virtual objects generated inside the Digital Twin. The physical vehicle continues to operate in the real environment, while the testing scenario is created digitally.

That can reduce the practical effort needed to organise repeated tests. It also makes the scenarios easier to reproduce, which is useful during ADAS development.

The Digital Twin could also help teleoperators when camera views are limited or temporarily unavailable. In those situations, the operator could rely on the digital visualisation, supported by data from the vehicle and roadside units, to better understand what’s happening around the vehicle.

HAN is carrying out this work together with project partners including KPN, TNO, V-Tron, RoboAuto, and Commsignia.

The activities in Helmond show how Digital Twin technology and advanced 5G connectivity can work together to support more flexible testing, clearer visualisation, and safer connected mobility services.