THEMATIC WINDOW: PNT FOR CCAM

*Country Eligibility depends on whether the activity is conducted under Element 2 or Element 3.

To support and accelerate the transition to a more connected, collaborative, and automated society, ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) in cooperation with ERTICO-ITS Europe, is launching this Thematic Window soliciting proposals from European industry, institutions, and research organizations to advance the use of Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) information in the domain of Connected Cooperative Autonomous Mobility (CCAM). 

Over the past decade, various players, including automotive OEMs, CCAM suppliers, SMEs, startups, as well as public and private research institutions, have made increased efforts to become active in this domain. Their endeavours include the development of driving assistance systems, entire CCAM vehicle prototypes, as well as autonomous driving laboratories aimed at creating realistic traffic situations for training intelligent vehicles, such as obstacle detection, autonomous braking and steering, and collision avoidance. All these developments have in common that they rely on PNT information and that significant efforts in research and development in this area are still required to drive this development forward, as the commercial implementation of CCAM solutions still remains a significant challenge.

In addition, this thematic window helps to support technology development and commercialization towards more sustainable forms. This is well aligned with the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility policies as well as those of ESA that aim to accelerate the use of space to mitigate climate change within the context of the “Space for a green future” accelerator. As the climate crisis is the most urgent challenge facing humanity, holistic and all-encompassing solutions must be found on every continent, in every region, and also in every sector of the economy. GNSS and general PNT systems have the opportunity to provide sustainable and commercial solutions for a decarbonized green economy. In this context, the transport and mobility sector is particularly important as it is responsible for around 23% of global CO2 emissions, of which almost half (45%) are caused by passenger cars and a further 30% by trucks. Thus, road transport is responsible for almost 75% of transport emissions. CCAM technologies that complement new propulsion models such as electric vehicles, offer the opportunity to make urban environments more sustainable by reducing overall fuel consumption and thus carbon emissions, air and light pollution, and congestion-related productivity losses. Moreover, through the adoption of data-driven CCAM concepts, smart, sustainable mobility and land use approaches can be improved, and zero-emission urban mobility facilitated.  

Accordingly, a variety of stakeholders is addressed within this Thematic Window, from private car users to car manufacturers and suppliers, to public authorities, municipalities and city planners. All will benefit from better connected, cleaner, and more automated traffic development. And although the development of fully automated vehicles (SAE Level 4-5) has still major challenges to overcome, the road ahead is described by innovative CCAM solutions, enabled by PNT data that, step by step, will enable the automotive sector of tomorrow.

The following picture describes different potential application areas in form of five themes, all related to the integration of PNT information but all with different goals and addressing different challenges, to serve as illustration for what the market is currently looking for:

More information on the Thematic Window can be found in the following clarification. This document includes a detailed description of the requirements to participate as well as the challenges and the specific use cases (The clarification, including the full Thematic Window can be found here).

An information webinar was held on October 18, 2022 to inform interested stakeholders about the thematic window. All presentations as well as the recording of the event can be found here: https://navisp.esa.int/document/

To participate, please visit ESA’s Open Space Innovation plattform (OSIP), where you can submit your ideas. There, the application process as well as the requirements and evaluation criteria are explained in more detail, including detailed instructions on how to ensure the quality of your submitted idea.