In August 2022, the Government announced its approach to supporting the safe deployment of self-driving vehicles to deliver societal and economic benefits. This led to a deployments competition, where seven successful projects from around the UK form the most advanced set of commercial, self-driving passenger and freight operations anywhere in the world.
Following on from this the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) announced the Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility: Supply Chain competition. A UWE Bristol project, in collaboration with Zero Point Motion LTD (ZPM) (lead), WAE Technologies, and Royal Institute of Navigation, has been successful in securing funding from the competition.
With a total funding of £28.5 million in joint Government and industry support, the 13 new supply chain projects will complement the deployment projects and will play a pivotal role in advancing the self-driving revolution by reinforcing the UK’s position at the forefront of connected and automated mobility technologies.
These projects will be delivered in partnership with CCAV’s delivery partners, Zenzic and Innovate UK to bring together government and industry to support the development of sovereign capabilities within the UK CAM supply chain. The selected projects will address critical technology gaps, enhance safety and security, improve performance and reliability, and create scalable opportunities both domestically and globally.
Combined, the deployments and the supply chain projects will help increase safety and efficiency of operations – a great result for our communities and our economy as we gradually roll these services and solutions out nationally and export them globally.
Photonic Inertial Sensors for Automotive (PISA):
The UWE Bristol, Zero Point Motion LTD (lead), WAE Technologies, and Royal Institute of Navigation project aims to develop advanced position and navigation sensors that work reliably in various environments. By leveraging Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS), Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), and low-cost laser/detectors, the project will improve the performance, resilience, and safety of autonomous vehicles (AVs) by reducing reliance on vulnerable external signals.
The aim is to release the UK’s first tactical/navigation grade inertial measurement unit (IMU) for tracking motion, 100x more sensitive than automotive IMUs today. Compared to existing sensors, the use of laser light to provide ultralow-noise readout whilst keeping the sensor cost low is innovative. This project develops automotive compatible chip packaging and lasers, accelerating ZPM’s roadmap to the automotive sector by meeting QA requirements and developing certification awareness.
Dr Amina Hamoud (PI) from UWE Bristol commented: “We are excited and proud to be part of ZPM’s journey and mission to accelerating their roadmap into the automotive sector developing revolutionary sensor that will change how CAV position themselves in the world”
Find out about the other successful projects.
PISA is part of CCAV’s Commercialising CAM Supply Chain Competition (CCAMSC). The Commercialising CAM programme is funded by the Centre for Connected and Automated Vehicles, a joint unit between the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Department for Transport (DfT) and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK and Zenzic.
The CCAM Supply Chain competition was launched in October 2022 to support the delivery of early commercialisable Connected and Automated Mobility technologies, products and services and is part of the Government’s vision for self-driving vehicles. Connected and automated mobility 2025: realising the benefits of self-driving vehicles.