WP1 is responsible for organisationally and financially coordinating the project consortium of scientific and industrial partners over the full duration of the flagship project.

The main task of WP2 is to develop and manufacture the photonic core components of the MEMS-based scanning LiDAR sensor. Technical key objectives are a significant increase of the field of view and the resolution. Related R&D goals include:

• a silicon-based MEMS micro-mirror with an extended Field of View, involving increased deflection angles and mirror size, and an increased operational lifetime
• a mirror driver with improved timing accuracy, resulting in higher resolution
• a photo receiver with increased resolution
• an array of VCSEL laser diodes integrated with their driver in a hybrid package

The goal of this WP is to develop, manufacture, calibrate, and test a fully integrated LiDAR sensor meeting the specifications of WP1. The main research and innovation of this work package lies in the development of new algorithms for full waveform analysis in low SNR situations. Furthermore, the emulation and simulation of a LiDAR sensor shall be evaluated.

The developed LiDAR needs to be integrated into a sensor fusion- and data communication- platform to allow to prove its superior value for highly automated driving functionality. In addition, such a central computing platform (CCP) requires a domain controller-oriented computing unit capable of fusing sensor data of multiple kinds. The fused data must be converted into actuator commands. According to latest perception such function shall be hosted in a centralized, domain controller-based architecture.

This WP will develop the architecture and the CCP to cover such safety- and security- related tasks in a domain controller embedded into a data-communication network-architecture fulfilling latest technological requirements. It will cover the data acquisition and the data processing hardware and software and will integrate the resulting components into a “connected control system” ready for integration of algorithms conducted in WP 5.

The goal of this work-package is to develop algorithms for interpreting the LiDAR point clouds and asses the semantic meaning of the acquired data. This includes algorithms for pre-processing, such as noise reduction, and resolution enhancement. Based on the point clouds objects of interest, such as cars, pedestrians etc are detected, segmented and classified into different classes. These objects will be tracked in subsequent frames. An object of special interest is the road and the lane markings. Novel tracking algorithms will be developed.

The goal of this work package is the development, test and demonstration of safe automated mobility functions. The developed functionalities (sensor fusion, hazard assessment, prediction, ADAS) are tested in simulation and integrated in the real vehicle. The considered use case scenarios for evaluation are selected during the project.

Development of an advanced Dynamic Ground Truth (DGT) reference validation system with an integrated high-precision iLIDS4SAM LiDAR sensor and environmental sensors (fog, T, p, etc.) for urban area automated/autonomous driving for

• validation of ADAS/AD in-vehicle solutions for urban environments
• urban scenario generation (as input for 3D environment simulation for in-vehicle systems/sensors and integration testing) for expansion of a test platform (MiL, HiL, ViL) into the urban area

Realization of a viable indirect LiDAR stimulation for ViL-testing environment (AVL DrivingCube™)

Validation of the ability of the sensor and the correlated algorithms to react properly in real-life rural environment

WP8 will manage the dissemination activities of project results, both to expert audiences in all relevant scientific and technical disciplines and an interested general public, thus creating visibility for the project, the consortium and its partners as well as for Austria as a high-tech science and innovation region. Active contribution to relevant standards, to ensure both the relevance of the project and its results and create a lasting impact well beyond the purely technical outcomes