Government Backs UK CAM Pioneers

Six businesses aiming to help the UK become a world-leader in the development and deployment of Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) solutions have secured up to £100,000 in grant funding from the 2024 CAM Scale-Up UK programme, delivered by Zenzic.

The continued influence of AI is demonstrated among the latest innovations to receive this year’s funding. The latest cohort of SMEs in the programme enable exciting transport innovations including live disability wheelchair access on public buses, driver fatigue and safety monitoring.

A total of 22 SMEs have been supported by the CAM Scale-Up UK programme since 2020. Technology developed through the programme has included the world’s first pothole-fixing robot, self-driving passenger and freight vehicles, and advanced radar and safety software solutions enabling vehicles to navigate extreme weather.

Supported by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and in partnership with Plug and Play, the programme enables start-ups and SMEs to test their products and services at the world-leading CAM Testbed UK testing facilities, which significantly accelerate their time to market.

Mark Cracknell, Programme Director at Zenzic, said: “CAM Scale-Up UK is not just about providing funding to businesses and leaving them to fend for themselves, it’s very much a wrap-around support programme which provides those successful with everything they need to truly realise their potential.

“Through CAM Testbed UK, they can test their solutions in as close to real-life scenarios as possible and accelerate their route to market. All the while picking the brains of some of the brightest minds in industry, it’s a real collaborative way of working.”

The SMEs supported in this year’s cohort are:

• Blueskeye AI – building clinical grade facial recognition technology through its B-Automotive product. Its work with the programme will see it use the CAM Testbed to gather the data sets required to improve their fatigue detection functionality.
• Deontic UK – Deontic UK is dedicated to enhancing autonomous vehicle safety by developing a generative AI solution. Their large language models (LLMs) are designed to assist autonomous vehicle vendors, manufacturers, and suppliers in seamlessly integrating regulatory frameworks into the technology behind software-defined vehicles and increasingly complex Operational Design Domains (ODDs).

• Maaind – aiming to mitigate mood-based driving accidents. Maaind uses tools including speech recognition, computer vision and readings from smart devices, all during a journey, to detect signs of stress in drivers, and to then offer an intervention to help the journey progress safely.

• Moonbility – providing real time information about wheelchair bays on buses. By integrating with existing CCTV cameras, the company will update consumers about wheelchair availability through passenger-facing applications.

• Opteran – neuromorphic software for machines, Opteran Mind provides robust, low-cost autonomy in the most challenging and dynamic environments.

• Saif Systems – providing real time safety monitoring software on a proprietary piece of hardware, inspired by leading researching into safety filtering techniques for non-deterministic control systems. The software takes into account safety requirements for autonomous systems and monitors its actions. The Saif System software can then stop an autonomous system operating outside of its constraints and improve reliability.

The grants will enable each of the SMEs to further research and develop their pioneering solutions, as well as test them in real-world scenarios courtesy of the world-leading CAM Testbed UK.

A network of eight UK test sites, CAM Testbed UK is supported by Zenzic to provide innovative businesses with a unique ability to cross-share data and encourage collaboration to drive the sector forward.

Mark added: “CAM Scale-Up UK is not just about providing funding to businesses and leaving them to fend for themselves, it’s very much a wrap-around support programme which provides those successful with everything they need to truly realise their potential.

“Through CAM Testbed UK, they can trial their solutions in as close to real-life scenarios as possible, while also picking the brains of some of the brightest minds in industry, it’s a real collaborative way of working.”

For more information on the CAM Scale-Up UK programme, visit: www.zenzic.io/innovation/cam-scale-up/.