AWARE: an autonomous vehicle project

Context of the projet

In the road transport sector, the accident studies show that 43% of the casualties occurred during the night and 20% when the road is wet. Such data force organisms like EURO_NCAP to write down prescriptions for driving assistance functions in their road maps:

• In 2013 : Introduction of the tests to ensure the respect of speed limit
• In 2014 : Introduction of the test to avoid lane departure, and for emergency braking on stationary or mobile vehicles
• In 2016 : Introduction of the test for daytime emergency braking on pedestrians

To answer to road accident data, most of the constructors and automotive suppliers do their best to reach the best performance at the EURO_NCAP test, at the best cost.

In the air transport sector, with an annual growth rate of 5%, the airport infrastructure managers as well as the airlines are facing two new challenges:

• The ability to maintain a high traffic in low visibility conditions : main cause of delays
• On-ground aircraft movement safety : critical phase for aircraft material integrity and passengers’ safety

These sectors express their needs for functions that assist the perception of the vehicle’s environment and to detect all vulnerable things, in all weather conditions, especially in deteriorated situations like night or fog, while respecting allowable expenses by sector. If today some technologies like RADAR or airborne imaging participate in satisfying the needs of this sector. However they are limited in bad weather conditions.

A consortium of ten partners

Experts in the automotive sector, VALEO, in the aeronautics and in system architecture, SAFRAN-SAGEM, in sensing technology, CEA-LETI, ULIS, in simulation technology, OKTAL and OKTAL SE, in signal processing, NEXYAD, in characterization of the conditions and field tests, IFSTAAR and CETE, of cost optimisation and added value, IAC, have gathered within the framework of the AWARE project, to develop an all-weather visibility sensor to overcome the limits of the current technologies.

Seven Work pages will allow, besides the management and the promotion of the project, to establish a precise statement of the needs, to select key technologies, to carry out evaluation demonstrators, to design and validate the design of the sensor, while developing corresponding high-level treatments.

After a 36 month period of the AWARE project, and after an industrialization period, besides an impact upon know-how and therefore on intellectual property, partners expect a 30M€ annual turnover around 2020 and the creation of about 60 jobs.

The concrete involvement of IAC in the project:

1. Economic monitoring of the sensor’s provisional priceUpstream of the design choiceAggregating the contributions of the different partnersTo measure quickly the difference from the target price… and to deduct from it the necessary levels of reconsideration
2. Methodological arbitration support to reduce costsClarify/ put in light the customers’ needs thanks to the end users’ point of viewImplementation of value analysis tools
3. Synthesize and offer potential solutions to reach the economic goalBreaking downSpecify the needTechnological choicesProduct architectureIndustrial schemeOptimizing each detailDesign choices (materials, manufacturing process, etc.)Suppliers (profile, geographic location, competitiveness, etc.)