Faster, Cheaper Safety Testing for Self-Driving Cars, Robots, and Drones

Imagine you build a self-driving car or a factory robot — before you can sell it, you need to prove it won't hurt anyone and can't be hacked. That testing process today is incredibly slow and expensive, sometimes taking longer than building the product itself. VALU3S brought together 42 organizations across Europe to create better tools and methods for testing automated systems — covering cars, robots, farm equipment, trains, aircraft, and medical devices. They tested these methods on 13 real use cases across 6 industries to show they actually work.

What needed solving

Every manufacturer of autonomous vehicles, industrial robots, or smart agricultural equipment faces the same bottleneck: proving their product is safe, secure, and won't violate privacy before it can reach the market. As these systems grow more complex with added automation, the verification and testing process becomes exponentially harder, slower, and more expensive — threatening competitiveness and time-to-market.

What was built

The project delivered a multi-domain verification and validation toolkit — methods, tools, and process workflows for testing automated systems against safety, cybersecurity, and privacy requirements. These were demonstrated through 13 use cases across automotive, robotics, agriculture, aerospace, railway, and health, with a final on-site demonstration event showing results to end users. In total, 24 deliverables were produced.

Who needs this

Who can put this to work

Quick answers

Who built it

VALU3S assembled one of the larger Horizon 2020 consortia with 42 partners across 10 European countries (AT, CZ, DE, ES, FR, IE, IT, PT, SE, TR). The industry-heavy composition — 26 industry partners (62%) including 16 SMEs — signals that this project was built for practical application, not just academic research. The mix of 10 universities and 6 research organizations provided the scientific muscle, while the dominant industry presence ensured methods were tested against real manufacturing and deployment constraints. Coordinated by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, a major applied research institute, the project had credible leadership for bridging research into practice.

• RISE RESEARCH INSTITUTES OF SWEDEN ABCoordinator · SE
• R G B MEDICAL DEVICES SAparticipant · ES
• CAMEA SPOL SROparticipant · CZ
• E.S.T.E. SRLparticipant · IT
• AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBHparticipant · AT
• ROBOAUTO S.R.O.participant · CZ
• KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLANparticipant · SE
• QRTECH AKTIEBOLAGparticipant · SE
• ALSTOM RAIL SWEDEN ABparticipant · SE
• ERGUNLER INSAAT PETROL URUNLERI OTOMOTIV TEKSTIL MADENCILIK SU URUNLER SANAYI VE TICARET LIMITED STI.participant · TR
• MONDRAGON GOI ESKOLA POLITEKNIKOA JOSE MARIA ARIZMENDIARRIETA S COOPparticipant · ES
• SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT OESTERREICHparticipant · AT
• INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DE ENGENHARIA DO PORTOparticipant · PT
• STATENS VAG- OCH TRANSPORTFORSKNINGSINSTITUTparticipant · SE
• NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTHparticipant · IE
• NXP SEMICONDUCTORS FRANCEparticipant · FR
• VYSOKE UCENI TECHNICKE V BRNEparticipant · CZ
• KNOWLEDGE CENTRIC SOLUTIONS SLparticipant · ES
• NXP SEMICONDUCTORS GERMANY GMBHparticipant · DE
• PUMACY TECHNOLOGIES AGparticipant · DE
• UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRAparticipant · PT
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DELL'AQUILAparticipant · IT
• FONDAZIONE BRUNO KESSLERparticipant · IT
• OTOKAR OTOMOTIV VE SAVUNMA SANAYI ASparticipant · TR
• UNIVERSIDAD DE CASTILLA - LA MANCHAparticipant · ES
• RULEX INNOVATION LABS SRLparticipant · IT
• CAF SIGNALLING S.Lparticipant · ES
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI GENOVAparticipant · IT
• PERCEIVE3D SAparticipant · PT
• CARDIOID TECHNOLOGIES LDAparticipant · PT
• INTECS SPAparticipant · IT
• STAM SRLparticipant · IT
• COLLINS AEROSPACE IRELAND, LIMITEDparticipant · IE
• IKERLAN S. COOPparticipant · ES