Together with six multinational partners TTControl has opened the computer vision and AI-focused research and applications centre Covision Lab. Located in Bressanone, Italy, Covision Lab will bundle their founding partners’ and the involved universities’ R&D resources and translate latest research into applicable technology.
“With some of Europe’s technology leaders, we are institutionalising our intense development efforts to create a competitive advantage for off-highway machine manufacturers”, said Roberto Ferrari, vice president service and operations of TTControl. “To reach the next productivity level for end customers and significantly increase efficiency, new concepts and technologies are crucial. With Covision Lab as a driver of innovation, we will help to prepare our customers for the shift of mobile machinery to a new level of autonomy and make vehicles safer.”
“The mission of Covision Lab is to produce state-of-the-art research in the area of computer vision technology and act as the bridge between research and industrial practice”, said Dr. Federico Giudiceandrea, president of the board of directors of Covision Lab, founder and CEO of founding partner Microtec.
Covision Lab is focusing its efforts to advance research in computer vision and AI on three key areas: deep learning, 3D sensing and embedded vision. The consortium has already started scientific cooperation with top research institutions such as the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Bolzano, with whom it will install and fund an endowed professorship starting in 2020. To continue pooling know-how, resources and technologies, further research collaborations with universities in Europe will follow.
TTControl will participate through its development teams in Bressanone. They aim to develop new applications for mobile machinery. Harvesters, excavators and lifting platforms will increasingly operate automated and will rely far less on personnel skills. Advanced assistance systems will facilitate operator-independency: for example, in the form of precision farming with advanced crop-row detection or exact motion control. Surround-view for vehicle operators will prevent injuries to people and damages to machines. Enabler of these developments are a reliable sensor fusion and the real-time processing of complex camera and image data by high-performance electronic control units (ECUs).
