AVIONTEK GMBH

Their core work

Aviontek GmbH is a German technology SME specializing in perception and sensing systems for autonomous and highly automated vehicles, drawing on what appears to be an aerospace/avionics engineering background (as implied by the company name). Their technical contribution centers on multi-sensor fusion — combining LIDAR and RADAR data streams to build reliable, fail-operational perception pipelines. In the RAWFIE project they worked on networked testbeds for unmanned vehicles across road, air, and water domains, while in NewControl they focused on cognitive perception and control architectures that must remain operational even under partial system failure. Their work sits squarely in the safety-critical end of autonomous systems, where the tolerance for error is close to zero.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (RAWFIE, 2015–2019), Aviontek worked on Future Internet experimentation with unmanned vehicles — a relatively broad IoT and connectivity framing with no specific perception or safety keywords recorded. By 2019, their focus had narrowed sharply: NewControl's keyword set (fail-operational, highly automated vehicle, LIDAR, RADAR, fusion) signals a move from general testbed participation toward specialized, safety-critical perception engineering. The trajectory is consistent with a company maturing from networked vehicle experimentation into the harder problem of making autonomous systems provably robust under real-world failure conditions.

Aviontek is moving deeper into safety-critical autonomous systems, making them a candidate partner for any consortium working on reliable perception, functional safety (ISO 26262 territory), or sensor fusion for automated driving or airborne platforms.

How they like to work

Aviontek has participated exclusively as a consortium partner — never as coordinator — across both projects, suggesting they contribute defined technical modules rather than leading project management or strategy. Both projects were large RIA consortia (NewControl alone spans 16 countries and 58 partners), so Aviontek operates comfortably in complex, multi-partner environments. They appear to function as a specialist plug-in: brought in for specific sensing or perception expertise rather than for general project leadership.

Despite only two projects, Aviontek has built contact with 58 unique partners across 16 countries — an unusually wide network for a two-project SME, suggesting they were part of large, well-connected RIA consortia rather than small bilateral efforts. No single-country cluster is evident; their reach is broadly European.

What sets them apart

Aviontek is a small German SME that has carved out a specific niche at the intersection of avionics-grade safety thinking and automotive autonomous systems — a combination that is rare and commercially valuable as the automotive industry increasingly borrows fail-safe design principles from aerospace. Their participation in NewControl alongside perception, planning, and control partners suggests they bring sensor-layer expertise that complements software-heavy partners. For a consortium needing credible hardware-oriented LIDAR/RADAR integration in a safety-critical context, a company with this profile and aerospace roots is a differentiated choice.

Highlights from their portfolio

• NewControl
  A high-complexity RIA addressing one of autonomous driving's hardest problems — keeping perception and control reliable under failure conditions — placing Aviontek in a 16-country, multi-partner consortium focused on the safety frontier of automated vehicles.
• RAWFIE
  Aviontek's entry into EU-funded research, where they gained testbed and networked-vehicle experience across road, air, and water platforms — unusually broad domain exposure for a small SME.