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Lero, a cutting-edge software research group that draws upon the cream of Irish university research talent, has announced that it will collaborate with French car components firm Valeo to create improved autonomous car tech.
The Lero group will be based at NUI Galway, close to Valeo's own Irish R&D centre based in Tuam. The idea is to leverage Lero's software expertise to better analyse the data inputs coming from various autonomous car sensors, in a bid to make the cars more able to deal with difficult traffic conditions.
Lero told CompleteCar.ie that part of the reason for basing the team in Galway, aside from the close links with Valeo, was to take advantage of the poor road and weather conditions often found in the west of Ireland, putting sensors and systems to a much tougher test than they would get on the dry, straight roads of Nevada and California.
A team of 30 will be stablished, taking from both Lero and Valeo, and in support of the programme, Lero NUI Galway is hiring ten PhD and two post-doctoral researchers.
The project team at Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre, supported by Science Foundation Ireland, will be headed by Dr Martin Glavin and Dr Edward Jones of the College of Engineering & Informatics at NUI Galway. Dr Ciarán Hughes, Senior Expert in Computer Vision, leads the Valeo research team.
"In many ways perception of the current state of autonomous vehicle technology is more advanced than reality," commented Dr Jones. "While autonomous vehicles are currently operating successfully in several locations, particularly in the US, this is often under road landscape and weather conditions very different to the more complex city and rural environments that would commonly be found in locations such as Ireland or elsewhere in Europe."
"Working with the Valeo R&D team our research aims to develop sensor technology that can see further and adapt to difficult driving conditions such as fog, heavy rain and darkness," added Dr Glavin. "It will also be designed to better deal with real life road situations such as cyclists, pedestrians or animals wandering on to the road."
Dr Ciarán Hughes, Senior Expert, Valeo added: "This collaboration brings an 18-year relationship with NUI Galway to a new level, a step that wouldn't have been possible without the support of Lero. At a broad level, the project will look at how to extract the most information possible from automotive sensors, which is critical for highly complex autonomous driving systems."
Speaking about the partnership, Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, which funds the Lero group, and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland, said: "It is a tribute to researchers in Ireland that Valeo has chosen to work with Lero, the SFI Research Centre for Software Research, and establish this R&D partnership here. SFI Research Centres such as Lero continue to make important scientific advances which support enterprise and industry, develop critical skills, support regional development and enhance Ireland's international reputation. We look forward to seeing the results of the partnership and the sharing of knowledge and expertise it will facilitate."
While the initial work will be done mostly in the laboratory, or on Valeo's closed-off test track in Tuam, the plan is also, eventually, to use the internal campus roads of NUI Galway to test autonomous car sensors, as they offer a convenient and complex layout to put the tech through the wringer.
Joe Gibbs, business development manager at Lero added: "This is an exciting project at the cutting edge of advanced autonomous vehicle technology. It is significant that this research is taking place in Ireland."