The project “Hybrid Intelligence for Collective Environmental Understanding in Intelligent Vehicles,” reference number PID2025-172023OB-C31, is a national research initiative funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities. It is scheduled to run from 2026 to 2029 and involves the Carlos III University of Madrid, the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and the European University of Madrid. The project is led by José María Armingol and Araceli Sanchis de Miguel and brings together a team of five researchers specializing in artificial intelligence, environmental perception, and intelligent transportation systems.

The main objective of the project is to advance the development of new hybrid intelligence techniques that enable smart vehicles to understand their driving environment more accurately, robustly, and contextually. To this end, the project will investigate methods capable of combining different sources of information, including data from cameras, onboard sensors, connected infrastructure, and other vehicles. This integration will enable the creation of a collective representation of the environment, overcoming the limitations of systems that analyze only the information captured individually by each vehicle.

From a technical standpoint, the project will focus on designing advanced algorithms for perception, data fusion, and intelligent reasoning to detect, identify, and interpret the various elements present in traffic scenarios. The combination of artificial intelligence techniques, knowledge-based models, and vehicle-to-vehicle cooperation mechanisms will improve the identification of pedestrians, vehicles, obstacles, traffic signals, and potentially dangerous situations. Furthermore, special attention will be given to data uncertainty, communication reliability, and the explainability of decisions—fundamental aspects for ensuring safety and trust in intelligent driving systems.