Revising approaches to reduce vehicle accidents

As the name suggests, Revision Autonomy is committed to change. Specifically, the company’s primary mission is to integrate its products with existing technology to reduce accidents and enhance driver safety, changing the roadways with its innovations.

“We believe fully autonomous vehicles, once developed, will significantly reduce accidents,” says Dr. Zachary Asher, co-founder of Revision Autonomy and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. “Our work serves as a stepping stone toward autonomous driving and improved safety.”

Creating this change emanated from the work of Asher and then WMU doctoral student, Dr. Nick Goberville, B.S.E.’19, Ph.D.’22. The duo realized their collaborative research could provide improved safety in transportation and set out to secure funding to commercialize their products. Goberville is also a connected and automated vehicle research engineer at Argonne National Laboratory.

They were successful and Asher and Goberville launched the new company in 2020. Now, Revision Autonomy is focused on developing products and securing funding ... and continuing its close partnership with WMU’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Products

Revision Autonomy specializes in camera perception and sensor software. Their flagship product, Lane Detection in Snow (LDIS), helps identify drivable lanes on snow-covered roads. Designed to be installed by manufacturers or Tier 1 suppliers, the software works on highways and arterial roads, analyzing available lane lines and tire tracks using camera data to create a detectable driving region. This product is designed to operate across a variety of cameras and hardware systems.

“The primary goal is to reduce accidents by providing additional lane information, which can assist both drivers and vehicle systems,” says Asher.

The company’s most recent development is supported by a new $200,000 Department of Energy grant for research and development of Revision Autonomy’s chip-enabled raised pavement markers (CERPMs) technology. The company secured an additional $25,000 from the Michigan Emerging Technology Fund.

Existing raised pavement markers (RPMs), often used to reflect light and indicate road lanes, are typically reflective pieces of rubber or plastic.

“We are making these markers ‘smart’ by embedding chips within them,” says Bryan Hagenbarth, who joined the company in 2022 and now serves as chief operating officer. Hagenbarth also earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from WMU in 2024. “This infrastructure-based solution aims to communicate with vehicles, even in adverse weather conditions.

This funding is for a one-year project with the purpose of establishing the proof-of-concept for the CERPM technology. “The idea is that after our work is done, we will have concluded the R&D efforts that address the technological limitations of CERPMs and will serve as the launch point for a Phase II grant, which funds the commercialization efforts to transform our technology into a commercial product,” explains Asher. “There is a lot of work ahead of us, but we are confident in our product and its application to various areas.”

Change Agents

Meet the Broncos leading the effort of Revision Autonomy to make driving safer.
•    Dr. Zachary Asher, co-founder and WMU associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
•    Dr. Nick Goberville, B.S.E.’19, Ph.D.’22, co-founder and connected and automated vehicle research engineer at Argonne National Laboratory
•    Bryan Hagenbarth, B.B.A.’24, chief operating officer
•    Alexandra Masterson, B.B.A.’23, hardware engineer 
•    Dr. Johan Fanas Rojas, M.S.E.’20, Ph.D.’23, chief technology officer
•    Eugene Tye, B.S.’23, senior software engineer

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