March 2016 NUI Galway Research on Intelligent Vehicles Showcased to High-Level European Committee

NUI Galway researchers working on development of technology for self-driving vehicles present to high-level European Transportation Research Advisory Committee

Researchers from NUI Galway presented their work on the development of technology for autonomous vehicles at the recent meeting of the European Road Transport Research Advisory Committee (ERTRAC), which was hosted by Valeo Vision Systems in Tuam, County Galway.

ERTRAC engages with key stakeholders in road transportation across Europe to develop a common Europe-wide vision for road transportation, and includes in its membership national transportation policy makers and regulators, research and innovation agencies, and major transport industry representatives.

Dr Edward Jones and Dr Martin Glavin from the Connaught Automotive Research (CAR) Group at NUI Galway presented research being conducted on the development of highly advanced intelligent automotive systems. This work focuses in particular on signal and image processing technology for applications such as automatically detecting pedestrians and other vehicles using cameras and other sensors. The objective of technology like this is to provide ‘advance warning’ of hazards on the road and give the driver or the vehicle more time to avoid a collision. Technology like this is already making its way into several production cars, and will be an important part of autonomous vehicles that will be capable of driving themselves without human intervention.

The NUI Galway CAR Group has a very successful partnership with Valeo for almost 17 years, and has worked on numerous research projects during that time that were aligned with Valeo’s technical and commercial objectives. Since then the CAR Group’s researchers have benefitted enormously by working with an industry partner.

At the ERTRAC meeting, Aengus Parsons, Director of Research at NUI Galway spoke about the rich research activity across the University, noting in particular NUI Galway’s significant recent success in attracting non-exchequer funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research Programme.

Aengus Parsons, Director of Research at NUI Galway, commented: “The long-standing collaboration between NUI Galway’s CAR Group and Valeo is a testament to the commitment of both parties in fostering a research programme that combines the University’s expertise in signal and image processing with the needs of industry. It highlights the relevance and value of NUI Galway’s research in contributing to the commercial and economic development in the Galway region and further afield.”

Further information on the CAR Group may be found at http://car.nuigalway.ie

For more information about NUI Galway’s Research Office visit: http://www.nuigalway.ie/research-office/

ENDS