The UAB and the CVC presented the digital urban environment Town-UAB, a project that reproduces the campus' network of roads and will help in advancing autonomous driving research. The presentation formed part of the conference on "Artificial Intelligence, Art and Innovation" held during the 2025 UAB Innovation Week. Other prototypes were also presented at the event, resulting from the collaboration between the UAB and the Cruïlla Festival through the ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair in artificial intelligence research applied to music and the arts.
As part of the presentations in the UAB Innovation Week of innovations carried out by ENIA UAB-Cruïlla, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Computer Vision Centre (CVC) presented Town-UAB, a photo-realistic digital urban environment inspired by the UAB Campus, created to train, test and validate artificial intelligence (AI) autonomous driving models. This prototype represents a paradigmatic example of multidisciplinary research and innovation.
The official presentation of Town-UAB formed part of the "Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Innovation" day-long conference organised by the ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair in artificial intelligence research applied to music and the arts, during the 2025 UAB Innovation Week.
Through an initiative co-funded by the ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair, the Town-UAB digital model allows driving in an urban environment with the simulation quality offered by Unreal Engine 5. This virtual environment allows creating test scenarios with variable traffic, lighting and weather conditions, reproducing the behaviour of vehicles, pedestrians and other elements in great detail. This speeds up the training of AI systems and facilitates their validation and testing in a safe and controlled environment, before taking them to real roads.
Developed by a multidisciplinary team of engineers, 3D artists and AI researchers, Town-UAB complements the work of the CVC with the open source CARLA simulator, a leading international platform on autonomous driving research and innovation.
The presentation of the prototypes of the UAB-Cruïlla Chair, including Town-UAB, was attended by Javier Lafuente, rector of the UAB; Fernando Vilariño, director of the UAB-Cruïlla Chair; and Jordi Herreruela, director of the Cruïlla Festival. Antonio López, professor at the UAB and ICREA Acadèmia Professor, and principal investigator in autonomous driving at the CVC, explained the development of the project and the results, as well as the tests carried out on the UAB campus in autonomous mobility. Afterwards, the participants were able to ride in the autonomous vehicle and take one of the tours of the university campus that have been included in the virtual environment.
An ideal place to experiment for AI
The UAB Campus is a privileged environment in which to research and validate AI systems for autonomous driving. With a surface area comparable to an urban environment, it has streets, car parks, roundabouts, pedestrian crossings, green areas, public transport, and constant flows of people and vehicles.
This configuration makes it a living laboratory, ideal for testing technological solutions in real but controlled conditions. It is a unique experimental space, where it is possible to evaluate and perfect autonomous driving based on traffic data from real and complex situations.
The new virtual urban environment digitally reproduces the campus road network where the CVC research team is already conducting tests with an electric and autonomous vehicle equipped with sensors and artificial intelligence models. The integration of the campus within the simulation allows the tests to be adapted to the specific needs of the research and advance in the validation of smart driving algorithms.
Image of the new virtual urban environment, Town-UAB.
AI to reveal unpublished partitures and other lines of research within the arts
The UAB-Cruïlla Chair explores new paths of technology transfer from artificial intelligence research to the live events sector, in collaboration with the Cruïlla Festival, one of Barcelona's leading music festivals. One of its goals is to turn the UAB campus and major events into spaces for experimentation, assessment and validation of different prototypes and technologies, and in which the public can participate in the definition of AI solutions while taking into account business development, ethical implications and sustainability.
Thus, in addition to the presentation of Town-UAB, other prototypes were shown during the event in the form of demonstrators and multidisciplinary performances that combine artificial intelligence and art, among which the following stand out:
- Concert of unpublished historical partitures: El projecte integra tecnologia de reconeixement de música manuscrita, musicologia i interpretació artística amb l'objectiu de digitalitzar, transcriure i difondre un patrimoni musical fins ara inèdit i contribuir així a la seva recuperació i retorn a la societat després de segles d'oblit. Choral concert accompanied by organ with unpublished works by Catalan composers from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, preserved in the Regional Archives Network and the Documentation Centre of the Orfeó Català. The works, performed by the vocal ensemble De Canendi Elegantia, are the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers from the departments of Arts and Musicology, Computer Science of the UAB, the CVC and various Catalan musical archives. The project integrates handwritten music recognition technology, musicology, and artistic interpretation with the aim of digitising, transcribing and disseminating a previously unpublished musical heritage and thus contributing to its recovery and return to society after centuries of oblivion.
- Candela: Modern audiovisual representation inspired in the improvisation and spontaneity of Flamenco. The work is created mostly live, with the artist María Badji producing music and visuals through body movement, generating a unique artistic experience in each performance. With immersive technology, computer vision systems and interactive devices, the artist controls the sound, visual and lighting systems in real time, becoming a channel between human expression and technological response.
- Harmon.IA: interactions between music and AI. This project was created in collaboration with the Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research (IIIA-CSIC) and presents two proposals for interaction between artists and artificial intelligence: 1) ImprovIA accompanies the improvisations of pianists Ignasi Terraza and Carles Marigó with AI generating sounds and environments that influence their interpretation. 2) Ghost Drum, where a dialogue is created between a pianist and a drum set controlled by AI, exploring improvisation and rhythmic freedom in real time.
- Beyond Collapse: creating unique landscapes of sound. Electronic music project led by two cyborg DJs, David Hernàndez and DJ Huex, who combine human skill and AI to create unique soundscapes. The show explores the relationship between humanity, technology and ethics, with electronic rhythms, live instruments and algorithms generating melodies in real time. Lights, visuals and audience interaction are synchronised with the music, offering an immersive and futuristic experience that invites reflection on the symbiosis between humans and machines.
The conference also included an information stand and eight other demonstration prototypes by researchers and students associated with the Chair that were presented in the UAB's Plaça Cívica throughout the morning.
Pioneering autonomous driving
The CVC, a CERCA centre in partnership with the UAB and the Government of Catalonia, is an international benchmark in research into artificial vision and artificial intelligence applied to autonomous driving. With more than 30 years of experience, it has pioneered the development of visual perception and recognition systems for smart vehicles.
Among its most relevant contributions is the creation of the CARLA simulator in 2017, developed in collaboration with Intel. This simulator has become a global standard in research and development in autonomous driving, receiving the National Research Award for Public-Private Partnership in 2021. The CVC has also participated in the development of autonomous driving systems focused on rural environments, one of the emerging challenges to improve connectivity and sustainable mobility beyond cities.
