Innovate UK GPR Project Update

As we head into month 4, work is progressing well on one of Technics’ more interesting projects: investigating how to use Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology to improve localisation systems in autonomous vehicles.

Technics won the UK government’s grant-funded project, run by Innovate UK, earlier this year to address the challenge of localisation system performance in this emerging transport technology.

Accurate, robust and reliable localisation is essential for the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles, with issues around the cost and accuracy of LiDAR and camera-based techniques in all-weather and all-light conditions needing effective resolution before more progress can be made.

The team has now successfully completed most of the necessary data capture and is working very closely with colleagues at University of Surrey to develop specialised integration software, with the aim of achieving proof-of-concept within the remaining project programme, ending January 2019.

Essential to this work has been the input of our Advisory Panel members Jaguar Land Rover (Vehicle Capability Research) and Ordnance Survey (Innovation & outreach). Meetings with their representatives have allowed the team to benefit from these organisations’ significant experience and to assess, at a very early stage, how the emerging technology can be effectively adopted for ultimate end use.

The next key milestone in this feasibility stage will be a live demonstration of our proposed solution and software to others involved in the connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) sector in January.

Watch this space – and in the meantime please get in touch with us direct if you would be interested in hearing more:  enquiries@technicsgroup.com.