AUTILITY

The cooperative research project AUTILITY investigates the automation of work and transport tasks in two different application areas - surface treatment and air freight transport. Both use-cases are intended to reduce the stresses and hazards to which people are exposed in complex work processes, particularly under difficult environmental conditions. The consortium, consisting of Austrian research institutions and industrial partners, has set itself the goal of achieving significant progress in this area. Basis for Development activities in the project form a multifunctional platform which can be used as a towing vehicle as well as a can be used with the equipment carrier. By means of innovative technical methods, this vehicle is to be used for the automated application and tested under real conditions.

The aim of the AUTILITY project is to research, develop and demonstrate key technologies which automated transport and work processes. The targeted technologies are core elements in the process from perception to decision and include:

• Understanding the scene and its relationships through new approaches to object classification and pose estimation based on machine learning and methods for reliable detection of objects and object characteristics and
• Reliable and safe outdoor localization and mapping based on multimodal approaches and innovative camera-based methods. The Fusion Various sensor data is used to ensure reliable obstacle detection and collision avoidance. The Investigation of suitable system architectures, data processing platforms and communication mechanisms taking the safety requirements into account, is a prerequisite for operation in safety-critical environment.