Current driver assistance systems are not all-weather capable. They offer comfort and safety in sound environmental conditions. However, in adverse weather conditions where the accident risks are highest they malfunction or even fail. Now that we are progressing towards automated cars and work machines, the requirements of fully reliable environment perception are only accentuated. The project is focusing on automated driving and its key enabling technology, environment perception. Consequently, project’s main objective is to develop and validate an all-weather sensor suit for traffic services, driver assistance and automated driving. Extended driving environment perception capability with smart, reliable and cost-efficient sensing system is necessary to meet the targets of all future driver assistance system applications. These targets need to be met regardless of location, weather or time of the day. Only by means of reliable and robust sensing system upcoming automated driving will be possible. The new sensor suit is based on a smart integration of three different technologies: (i) Radio radar, 77 GHz-81 GHz, (MIMO Radar); (ii) Gated short wave infrared camera with pulsed laser illumination (SWIR camera)and (iii) Short-wave infrared LIDAR (SWIR Lidar). Such a full fusion approach has never been investigated before, so that the outcome will advance the state-of-the-art significantly and demonstrate the potential of all-weather environment perception. DENSE innovation lies in the provision of a brilliant restored enriched colour image from a degraded infrared image and consequently, this is followed by a variety of application fields for low cost solutions. An important aim is also to close the gap to US developments in the field and avoid their restrictions for selling components overseas for strategic reasons and strengthen the position of European industry in worldwide competition.

The GOF2.0 Integrated Urban Airspace VLD (GOF2.0) very large demonstration project will safely, securely, and sustainably demonstrate operational validity of serving combined UAS, eVTOL and manned operations in a unified, dense urban airspace using current ATM and U-space services and systems. Both ATM and U-space communities depend extensively on the provision of timely, relevant, accurate and quality-assured digital information to collaborate and make informed decisions. The demonstrations focus on validation of the GOF 2.0 architecture for highly automated real-time separation assurance in dense air space including precision weather and telecom networks for air-ground communication and will significantly contribute to understanding how the safe integration of UAM and other commercial drone operations into ATM Airspace without degrading safety, security or disrupting current airspace operations can be implemented.

The strong drive for more complex systems and more advanced packaging, including optics and photonics, creates a chance to retain the manufacturing and packaging value chain to Europe - or even start to bring it back. APPLAUSE supports this by building on the European expertise in advanced packaging and assembly to develop new tools, methods and processes for high volume mass manufacturing of electrical and optical components. The technologies will be piloted in 5 industrial Use Cases, related to 1. Substantially smaller 3D integrated ambient light sensor for mobile and wearable applications (AMS) 2. High performance, low cost, uncooled thermal IR sensor for automotive and surveillance applications (IDEAS) 3. High speed Datacom transceivers with reduced manufacturing costs (DustPhotonics) 4. Flexible cardiac monitoring patch and miniaturized cardiac implants with advanced monitoring capabilities (GE Healthcare and Cardiaccs) 6. Optical water measurement modules with cost-effective packaging of components (Vaisala) The APPLAUSE consortium is built of a number of leading experts from European electronics packaging companies representing different value chain levels related to advanced packaging and smart system integration. The parties have complementary expertise in conception, design, packaging, testing and manufacturing of electronic components, as well as a wide range of expertise from several different end use areas. The unique European ecosystem established within the consortium represents the competitive, leading edge of the technologies available.