Richard Ramakers

Organization and Operation of Electronically Coupled Truck Platoons on German Motorways

One opportunity to manage the increase of freight transportation and to optimize utilization of motorway capacities is the concept of truck platoons. With the aid of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, trucks are electronically coupled keeping very short gaps (approx. 10 meters) to form truck platoons on motorways. This contributes to optimisation of traffic flow and reduction of fuel consumption advantaged by slipstream driving. In this paper, a brief introduction into these truck platoons is given as well as a short overview about the elements of the automation-, information- and automotive-technology of the experimental trucks. The paper focuses on the Driver Information System which helps truck drivers to organize and operate these platoons. A generic software architecture for the Driver Information System of the platoon system is presented, which guarantees the development of a modern, flexible, extensible and easily configurable system, especially for Human Machine Interfaces of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems.

Automated Truck Platoons on Motorways – A Contribution to the Safety on Roads

One opportunity to manage the rising freight transportation and to optimize the utilization of motorway capacities is the concept of truck platoons.With the aid of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems it is possible to couple trucks electronically. In consequence, trucks can keep short distances between vehicles of approx. 10 meters at 50 mph and that way realize truck platoons on motorways. Electronically coupled truck platoons offer various improvements to the freight transportation problem, such as improved vehicle occupancy, gained road space, optimization of traffic flow, reduction of fuel consumption due to slipstream driving, a relief for professional drivers and finally an increase in safety due to the longitudinal and lateral guidance. In this paper, a brief introduction to the technical background of these truck platoons is given, as they were realized and tested on public roads within the project KONVOI. The main focus is on the contribution to the road safety of electronically coupled trucks on German motorways. Hence, German accident statistics will be discussed and the benefit for the society due to accident reduction will be monetized and calculated on the basis of the German Federal Traffic Route Plan.

In-depth safety impact study on longer and/or heavier commercial vehicles in Europe

Maximum weights and dimensions of commercial vehicles within the territory of the European Union are regulated in Directive 96/53/EC. Already today Europe is challenged by an enormous growth of freight transport which such threatens parts of the European transport system with congestion and economic costs that this entails the directive may have reached its limitations. Thus, the Directorate General for Energy and Transport (DG TREN) has recently commissioned a study for European research institutes to analyze the different effects of adapting the maximum weights and dimensions of heavy commercial vehicles for the European Commission. This paper provides an overview of the in-depth safety analysis within this study of these vehicles on European roads. A key finding of the analysis was that permitting longer and/or heavier vehicles in road traffic would not induce an inherent increase of safety risks in general. In addition, the study revealed an economic benefit regarding accident costs by the usage of such commercial vehicles.

Sustainable transport — Knowledge and innovations at RWTH Aachen university for Europe's systems of tomorrow

The transport of freight and people is a basic condition for the competitiveness of industry and services in Europe. This economic sector solitary has a turnover of approx. 1,000 billion EUR (approx. 7% of the gross domestic product of the EU), employs more than 10 million people and contributes substantially to the functioning of the European economy [1]. The general context of transport has strongly changed in Europe during the last years. Carbon dioxide emissions, noise pollution, rising oil prices and the strain of road traffic constitute important challenges and impulses for energy efficient, ecological and sustainable transport at the same time. In the following document the topical situation in the European transport sector is highlighted and the future challenges to the European transport system are pointed out. In this connection three approaches by RWTH Aachen University (Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen) are introduced which contribute to the aims of energy efficient, ecological and sustainable transport in Europe.

Design and Application of a new Workshop Concept on the Development of an Innovative Transport Unit - A new way of Knowledge Sharing

For a product-oriented project, the product development in particular the design and decision phase is of a high relevance. In this phase and based on the identified requirements, ideas and solutions are summarized, evaluated and filtered. In the interdisciplinary research project “TelliBox” (within the 7th work program of the European Union) an innovative container for the intermodal transport has been developed. Within the consortium the diversity of ideas and images to realize such a container was huge and common approaches, particularly for the filtering and combination of the best possible solutions, seemed not very promising, since they were not able to integrate all participants into the process. Thus, the procedure of solution-finding and filtering turned out to be rather inefficient and uneconomical. Therefore a new workshop concept was developed that allowed to summarize, evaluate and filter solution proposals. The concept was used for a heterogeneous project consortium, with divergent desires and requirements, during the solution development. The workshops aim was to consolidate the individual images and ideas of the 25 participants (researchers, developers, operators, freight forwarders, etc.) and to define of about three to five plausible solutions. These had to fulfill all technical requirements and needed to be accepted by all stakeholders before they were worked out in detail and finally decided on. The workshop concept was split in five communication levels (“Dialog”, “Inner Dialog”, “Exchange within Groups”, “Exchange between Groups” and “Exchange within the Consortium”) where different processes were located. These processes involved several methods like speed dating, morphological analysis, poster session etc. accompanied by methodical working phases like individual work, group work or even work in the whole consortium. This new approach to the creation of ideas and the sharing of knowledge showed that solution finding processes can be shortened and that the integration of all relevant participants lead to an innovative and feasible solution. Thus, the product development was accepted by all parties and was successfully accomplished without any compromises concerning the requirements. The fact that all project partners were able to present their own ideas and discuss them without any prejudices promoted the approval and acceptance of the decisions made. Through their involvement the partners were also much more interested in the next steps of the project.

Criteria for Age Based Design of Active Vehicle Safety Systems

In Criteria for age based design of active vehicle safety systems the recent results of the research project Evaluation of active vehicle safety systems and components in regard to their safety impact on elderly car drivers are presented. The project is funded by the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt). The project aims to answer the question whether Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are able to support elderly drivers to stay mobile and, if so, how they need to be designed to do so. The aim of the project is to retrospectively develop a list of criteria which shall help to develop future age-based designs of driver assistance systems. Therefore an extensive market analysis was carried out at first. The market analysis contained a literature research, a survey with 70 elderly people and expert interviews. In the second phase test drives combined with workload assessments were conducted. 30 elderly and 30 younger drivers participated in the test drives.

Größere Nutzfahrzeuge - länger und schwerer? Chancen und Risiken für Europa

In der Direktive 96/53/EC werden Mase und Gewichte von Nutzfahrzeugen in Europa geregelt. Vor dem Hintergrund eines prognostizierten weiteren Anstiegs des Guterverkehrsaufkommens von bis zu 50% in den EU25- Staaten vom Jahr 2000 bis 2020 beschaftigen sich aktuell Politik, Wirtschaft und Forschung in Europa mit einer moglichen Anpassung dieser Direktive, um den zukunftigen Herausforderungen gewachsen zu sein und den Strasenguterverkehr effizienter zu gestalten.