26 Founded in 2015, Applied EV is a company based in Sydney, Australia, whose raison d’être is to create transport solutions that it views as safer, cleaner and more efficient than existing conventional solutions, and by extension to unlock new business models and economics for transport through the development of its software-defined vehicles. “Our team comes from a broad range of high-tech and automotive backgrounds with experience in business development, programme management and corporate governance, giving us experience across the full development lifecycle of automotive systems and software,” says Julian Broadbent, co-founder and CEO of Applied EV. The company’s journey began with the design of a solution it calls the Digital Backbone, a purpose-built control system (analogous in many ways to an autopilot) that could be installed into theoretically any traditional road vehicle – although electric vehicles (EVs) are naturally preferred for their digitalised control networks – and, with the minimum of integration steps, make it autonomyready, with potentially just a sensor architecture installation as the missing piece for the integrator to decide upon. The system contains all the hardware and functions needed for principal control and management of the vehicle, judiciously crafted to comply with the highest safety ratings. Applied EV anticipates that by packing the Digital Backbone with all the latest and most optimised software and hardware systems it could source or develop in-house for handling veritably all the functions of an autonomous EV, the turnkey solution could simplify vehicle architectures, remove hundreds of components, reduce production costs, increase efficiency and make the entire automotive ecosystem more sustainable. To satisfy industry and market requirements, Applied EV aimed to ensure the complex control and Rory Jackson learns about the Blanc Robot, a blank slate on which to build any body structure for any application Body builders April/May 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Applied EV’s Blanc Robot is a fully-electric 4WD vehicle platform, constituting 80-90% of the work needed for any new commercial UGV (Images courtesy of Applied EV)
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