Goal of the working group

Sustainable academy and community building around autonomous driving and ADAS. 

The working group aims to create a sustainable academy parallel to a sustainable community in the field of autonomous driving and ADAS, whereby for the working group the focus shifts from an academy focus to a community focus during the TALCOM project. The working group uses three streams: education (academy) research (community, also source for new academy content) and equipment & infra (academy & community). 

Partners:

2getthere, AGVR, Almende, Altran Engineering, Bosch, Bosch Rexroth, Cerescon, Ebusco, Fontys, H2Trac, HAN, Hogeschool Rotterdam, Hyster-Yale, Livestock Robotics, MWLC, NXP, RDW, Sick, Sioux Logena, Terberg Benschop, TNO, TomTom, Trabotix, Track32, TRENS Solar Trains, TU Delft, VDL Automated Vehicles/ Steelweld, Verum, VSE, V-Tron. 

Workgroup leader: Jan Benders, HAN Automotive Research, jan.benders@han.nl, 06-12537646 

Project Activities: 

• Formation of a sizeable and growing network of working group members
• Mapping of knowledge supply and demanv ia survey and via thematic teams
• Providing the first pilots for professional educational offerings
• Development of academy offerings for autonomous driving
  • Determine roadmap academy content
  • Selection of subjects for initial offer of modules
  • Development and (pilot) delivery of first modules
• Development of physical equipment&infra for education and research
• Development of joint research projects
• Realize sustainable NL-community around autonomous driving 

The working group on autonomous driving pursues two goals: development of academy content and formation of a sustainable community around autonomous driving. From its inception, the working group was active in attracting a relatively large number of members in order to create a market-relevant network. The working group defined a roadmap at the beginning of 2020 whereby during project Talcom the focus shifts from academy to community. This roadmap includes three central themes:

Education (academy)
Research (community)
Equipment&infra (academy and community)

Education

In the area of education, the working group mapped out knowledge demand and supply in fairly detail. This was done through substantive discussions in the broad working group, followed by surveys, after which six thematic teams provided further detail. The six defined main themes in knowledge demand and supply are: AV engineering, architecture&integration, perception&localization, testing&homologation, human factors and business&legal. From this input, the working group is developing a number of modules based on a roadmap approach. In the run-up to this, various working group members have already given physical and online master classes and webinars on relevant topics.

Research

One of the goals of the working group is to answer jointly supported research questions. For example, there is now an advanced RAAK-MKB application that focuses on a concept for a reusable safety layer for low-speed autonomous vehicles.

Equipment&infra

In the working group, the member universities of applied sciences work on the availability of equipment and infrastructure for education and research:

Fontys/HAN/HR Parkshuttles
Fontys Prius
HAN Streetdrone
HAN Smart Cars
HAN Autonomy kit
HR Cargopod
I-AT/HAN Mission Bus
Test sites Fontys, HAN, HR
Various simulation environments.
Sustainable community formation

The dot on the horizon is a sustainable community that can deliver lasting value for its members. Components for that community are, for example, the evolving academy content (which can be steered in terms of content by members), joint research projects, the opportunity for mutual learning (including through company visits) and thematic meetings.

SafeCLAI

In 2021, the Autonomous Driving Working Group took a significant step towards making the community more sustainable through project SafeCLAI. In 2020, the working group identified routes to sustainable collaboration, including jointly tackling research questions. After prioritization, the development and admission of autonomous vehicles, particularly as it relates to safety of those vehicles, proved to be a widely shared challenge among the working group members. Further question articulation led to a joint initiative: Development of a reusable safety concept for (low-speed) autonomous vehicles. Throughout 2021, this idea was developed through both plenary workshops and many bilateral meetings into a concrete RAAK SME project proposal called SafeCLAI: Safety Concept for Low-speed AV Implementations. The project proposal was submitted in April and approved by SIA in October. The project started in February 2022 and immediately provides an expansion of the working group due to the large partner group linked to the project.