The 2021 has been a steady growing and productive year despite pandemic restrictions that have impacted smart working practices for most of the time. With a turnover of 1.35 M€ and a net profit of 240 K€ – contributing to raise the equity to 405 k€ – Radiolabs financial structure is become more solid as ever, strengthening its role of innovator, scientific excellence, management of research projects, and technology transfer to the industrial sector.
The area of Positioning and Communication domains are crucial for the evolution of the transport sector withstanding a phase of extraordinary changes – never before and irreversible – driven by the energy transition, CO2 reduction, and progressive digitalization and automation. In this frame, Radiolabs is pivoting Research with Universities in the new fields of sensor fusion, data processing, artificial intelligence, electronic horizon, and resilient mobile communications that are the key ingredients for a sustainable mobility.
The 2021 marks for Radiolabs a turn-around with the successful completion of the DB4Rail project with ESA – the most challenging from the technology side to developing the first GNSS positioning platform with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities for the ERTMS train control system. Yet a remarkable success was the completion of the Gate4Rail project – A GNSS Automated Virtualized Test Environment for Rail – having the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking recognized that the project is a key of the Multi-annual action plan and that the outputs of the project are contributing to its implementation.
Meanwhile, new projects have been kicked off: GALITS a rail-grade GNSS multi-constellation multi-frequency SDR receiver, and P-CAR, the first Laboratory in Europe for the validation and certification of high integrity vehicle’s positioning systems for the Connected and Autonomous cars. Yet, AB4Rail got a green light from Shift2Rail to study in collaboration with the telecom rail community new telecom bearers, including LEO Satcom and High-Altitude Platforms, for the FRMCS – the recently agreed standard for the railways telecommunications that relies on a multi-bearer architecture.
Furthermore, the EMERGE programme – funded by the Ministry of Economical Development and coordinated with Stellantis – for developing and testing the Positioning, Communication and Cybersecure platforms of the Connected cars has completed the second year of a three-year plan, attracting even new projects in the Region Abruzzo technological district. In this field the HELMET project funded by EUSPA is developing a multi modal- GNSS Augmentation Architecture for rail, automotive, and UAV applications leveraging on technical and operational synergies among the three applications.
All these projects have forged interdisciplinary teams involving Radiolabs consortium members and external partners to reach the ambitious objectives set by the new 7.5 M€ of projects included in the 2022 –2024 plan focused on the rail, automotive, and maritime technologies for sustainable and automated transport systems.