Grant: Alliance Grants

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are cars, buses or trucks that can travel with limited or no human intervention. They combine sensors, perception systems and software to control, navigate, and safely drive the vehicle. AVs promise to improve our transportation system's efficiency, reduce collisions and traffic congestion, and improve mobility for our growing population. As the world continues to move toward a more efficient transportation system driven by AVs, there is an increasing demand for new technologies that guarantee AVs' efficient and safe operation. Trust in AVs hinges on the reliability of autonomy, including the crucial task of positioning, which should be accurately provided at high precision everywhere for all environments.This research will enable the development and deployment of robust positioning and mapping systems for AVs at a decimeter level of accuracy with high integrity. Our proposed solution will sustain this performance seamlessly everywhere in all operating conditions. With our industry partner, Micro Engineering Tech, we will introduce a new paradigm for the positioning and mapping of AVs. It will expand the present technologies' capabilities and enable the processing of a broader range of complementary sensors and systems on a single platform. This research will revolutionize AV multi-sensor positioning and mapping. We will develop unique machine learning methods to manage and coordinate the heterogeneous set of AV sensors/systems for efficient and safe autonomous driving. This research will significantly impact the acceptance of and trust in AVs by enhancing safety and reliability and decreasing the failure rate in degraded environments. It will also help achieve ubiquitous positioning technology and improve Canada's position in the AV services sector. Moreover, the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) is an essential component of this research program. A diverse group of 10 talented HQP will be involved to contribute towards advancing Canada's AV technologies.