Announcement made as Minister Humphreys launches €4.2m national research collaboration on driverless vehicles.

Heather Humphreys TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation, has launched a €4.2m research collaboration on driverless vehicles, which includes a contribution by Government of over €2 million through Science Foundation Ireland, and will be led by Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre.

As part of the programme, researchers from Irish academia, including IT Tralee, global automotive and Irish firms will collaborate on key international challenges facing the development of driverless vehicles, especially those working in the same environments as pedestrians, animals and human-operated vehicles. The project brings together 11 companies to work on a variety of autonomous systems projects across the automotive, industrial and agricultural sectors.

Professor Joseph Walsh, Head of School of Stem and Lero@IT Tralee said, “This exciting industry-led partnership research programme will use a range of inexpensive smart sensors and vison systems together with artificial intelligence and machine learning to address situations where decisions are required in real time. The research knowledge gained will help to build world-leading capability in autonomous and adaptive systems, helping to establish Ireland as an important player in the vehicle autonomous eco-system and delivering solutions that can play a significant part in Ireland’s economy”.

Lero@ITTralee's collaborating industry partners are contributing 650k towards this research programme over the next 5 years.

Researchers from across Lero along with SFI research centres CONNECT and Insight, will work with multinational industry partners such as Jaguar Land Rover, Kostal, Liebherr and  Valeo; large indigenous Irish companies like Combilift and Dairymaster and smaller Irish companies including Greenval, Mobimetrix, PMS Pavement Management Services Ltd, Reamda and Transpoco.

Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Director, Lero commented, “Revenues from autonomous systems have been projected to be worth over $100 billion by 20301. There is no reason why Ireland cannot be a serious research player in this vital sector.