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Symbolfoto: Das AIT ist Österreichs größte außeruniversitäre Forschungseinrichtung

The Competence Unit "Assistive and Autonomous Systems" researches and develops technology components for assistance systems and for the automation of commercial vehicles as well as in digital aviation.

We focus on essential technologies such as recording the surroundings of a vehicle or machine and use the results of fundamental research. Together with partners from industry we increase the level of maturity of the technologies to the extent that they can be used in innovative new products and stand out as efficient, flexible, and safe. In doing so, it is essential for us that the technologies support people in their work: For example, automated machines are to take over repetitive work steps or monitor the environment in order to avoid hazards and collisions.

Areas of application

Our concepts, methods, and technology components can be used in a variety of ways, including the following areas of application:

  • Railway / public transport (assistance systems for trams)
  • Construction industry (assistance systems for cranes, wheel loaders)
  • Logistics & Transportation (automatic handling of goods with forklifts and cranes)
  • Agriculture and forestry (automated weed removal in organic farming, protective forest monitoring)
  • Aviation (air surveillance, situational awareness by unmanned aerial vehicles)

In order to develop our systems on an ongoing basis, we are conducting research into new methods of data collection, preparation, analysis, and fusion.  As data sources, we use sensors such as cameras with different spectral ranges, laser-based systems, radar sensors including imaging radar systems, but also odometry sensors and satellite navigation data for locality determination and navigation. In image processing, we are increasingly implementing AI-supported methods such as deep learning, which are based on neural networks, in addition to traditional processes. The latter, however, requires extensive data collection and appropriate information compilation. In order to reduce this effort needed for collecting real data, and to reduce the number of real test scenarios, we investigate possibilities for obtaining synthetic data and simulate driving and working scenarios.

We offer research solutions and the development of tailor-made technology components for assistance systems as well as for automated commercial vehicles and aviation systems:

  • system and needs analysis
  • feasibility analysis
  • tailor-made sensor concepts for perception of the surroundings and the necessary processing hardware
  • miniaturized sensor systems for object measurement (e.g.  3D Dentalscanner)
  • data collection and analytical methods for multimodal sensor systems
  • Machine Learning for object classification, semantic segmentation, object pose determination, scene understanding, etc.

Research Topics

Solutions

Solution

Robotic & Autonomous Systems

Solution

High-Performance Inspection & Metrology Systems

Laboratories and Test Areas