Enabling technologies for urban smart mobility: Recent trends, opportunities and challenges

The increasing population across the globe makes it essential to link smart and sustainable city planning with the logistics of transporting people and goods, which will significantly contribute to how societies will face mobility in the coming years. The concept of smart mobility emerged with the popularity of smart cities and is aligned with the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations. A reduction in traffic congestion and new route optimizations with reduced ecological footprint are some of the essential factors of smart mobility; however, other aspects must also be taken into account, such as the promotion of active mobility and inclusive mobility, encour-aging the use of other types of environmentally friendly fuels and engagement with citizens. The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain and Big Data technology will serve as the main entry points and fundamental pillars to promote the rise of new innovative solutions that will change the current paradigm for cities and their citizens. Mobility‐as‐a‐service, traffic flow optimization, the optimization of logistics and autonomous vehicles are some of the services and applications that will encompass several changes in the coming years with the transition of existing cities into smart cities. This paper provides an extensive review of the current trends and solutions presented in the scope of smart mobility and enabling technologies that support it. An overview of how smart mobility fits into smart cities is provided by characterizing its main attributes and the key benefits of using smart mobility in a smart city ecosystem. Further, this paper highlights other various opportunities and challenges related to smart mobility. Lastly, the major services and applications that are expected to arise in the coming years within smart mobility are explored with the prospective future trends and scope

The Flying Car – Challenges and Strategies towards Future Adoption

In recent years, our surface transportation infrastructure is suffering from overuse, extreme traffic congestion, and roadway disrepair. Instead of following the traditional infrastructure expansion policy, current transportation research focuses on developing innovative and novel solutions to the aforementioned issues. Current pathways to overcoming these issues include the gradual transition towards a number of emerging transportation technologies, such as, autonomous motor vehicles for human transport, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) and "drone" technologies for surveillance, and package deliveries. However, as a long-term solution, transportation scientists are also investigating the once-seemingly futuristic notion of flying car technology - a convergent form of ground/air vehicle transportation, and assessing associated regulations. In this paper, an extensive review of current literature is conducted to explore the technological capabilities of flying cars – each requiring appropriate regulations and governance – to become fully sustainable. Specifically, issues pertinent to training, safety, environment, navigation, infrastructure, logistics/sustainability, and cybersecurity and human factors are explored. This paper concludes with a preliminary quantitative analysis exploring the public perceptions associated with flying cars – including anticipated benefits, concerns, and willingness to both hire and acquire the technology once available to consumers. Insights offered by this data will help inform next-generation policies and standards associated with the gradual advancement of flying cars

When Technology takes the Wheel Is the CMR ready to meet the demand for Autonomous Transportation?

Vehicles, machines that helped people to succeed in throwing of the shackles of human- or animal-powered transportation, have long been developing but stayed fundamentally the same. Save for technological innovations, vehicles have remained dependent on humans. New, conceptually different vehicles have started cropping up because of their Artificial Intelligent (A.I.) systems. These systems enable autonomous operating vehicles. What is peculiar to the autonomous vehicles is that they will no longer be depended on human control but operate at the same level as humans. In the light of that, judges are about to face emerging problems connected with adapting legislation to the technology development. The notion ‘adapting’ should be stressed here due to the fact that creating the convention which will always comply with the technology development is almost impossible. At the level of international conventions the framework for their interpretation based on Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) allows for stretching the currently existing concepts and adapting them among the others to technological change. This, however, has some boundaries because the interpretation needs always to be imbedded in parties’ will. The judges will also need to consider the evolving initiatives concerning autonomous vehicles, because these might collide with mandatory international conventions. The aim of this article is to analyze whether the CMR is future-proof for autonomous transportation. The functional aspects of dealing with autonomous vehicles are compiled with the instruments for the treaty interpretation to investigate what the consequences of adapting the concept of vehicle are. Within the CMR convention, the use of autonomous vehicles seems to stretch the current concepts and framework to its limits, giving rise to the question when the moment comes when stretching the framework leads to breaking the framework of the CMR convention

On the potential for one-way electric vehicle car-sharing in future mobility systems

This research was carried out as part of the ESPRIT project, which was funded under grant agreement no. 653395 of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Autonomous ground vehicles in urban last-mile delivery : an exploration of the implementation feasibility and consumer’s acceptance

E-Commerce has rapidly changed the urban last-mile delivery in recent years, and Courier-, Express- and Parcel (CEP) companies are challenged by the increasing demand. Service robotics with autonomous vehicles are subject to be the catalyst for transforming the industry. Considering the infancy and lack of research on the subject, the purpose of this study is to explore the concept of autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) in urban last-mile delivery from two perspectives. First, data about the industry and insights from the technology provider summarize the status quo of recent developments and implementation barriers with the help of expert interviews. The findings show obstacles in the technological maturity and regulatory framework. Moreover, although only road-AGVs (rAGVs) will significantly change the industry, sidewalk-AGVs (sAGVs) act as a proof of concept as the implementation is more feasible. In addition, they create new premium services for the consumers. Second, an attempt to determine the consumer’s acceptance of sAGVs, using the combination of the technology acceptance model and the technology readiness index, is made with an online survey. The proposed research model is analysed by means of simple regression analysis, and all hypotheses are supported. The majority of the respondents have a positive attitude towards the concept of sAGVs for delivery and consider using it when the safety of their delivery goods is guaranteed. This dissertation enriches the literature on human-robot acceptance as well as the management of CEP-companies to increase the engagement in the implementation of sidewalk-AGVs to increase service innovation for consumers.O comércio electrónico mudou rapidamente a entrega urbana de bens ao consumidor, e as empresas de Correio Expresso Urgente são desafiadas pela procura crescente. Os serviços robóticos com veículos autónomos serão provavelmente o catalisador da transformação desta indústria. Considerando a falta e o estágio inicial de investigação, este estudo explora o conceito de veículos autónomos terrestres (AGVs) na entrega urbana de bens ao consumidor considerando duas perspetivas. Uma primeira será a de recolher dados sobre a indústria e insights de fornecedores da tecnologia, sumarizando os mais recentes desenvolvimentos e as barreiras à implementação, com a ajuda de entrevistas a especialistas. Os resultados revelam obstáculos na maturidade tecnológica e enquadramento regulamentar. Adicionalmente, embora apenas os AGVs rodoviários (rAGVs) virão a alterar significativamente a indústria, os AGVs de passeio (sAGVs) atuam como prova de conceito, dada a sua implementação viável. Em segundo lugar, a aceitação de sAGVs por parte do consumidor é determinada através da combinação de modelos de aceitação tecnológica e do índex de prontidão de tecnologia, via questionário online. O modelo de investigação proposto é testado por meio de análise de regressão simples, e todas as hipóteses são suportadas. A maioria dos participantes tem uma atitude positiva em relação aos sAGVs para entrega, e considera usá-los se a segurança dos seus bens for garantida. Esta dissertação enriquece a literatura sobre aceitação humana-robot, bem como a gestão de empresas de Correio Expresso Urgente, aumentando o envolvimento na implementação de sAGVs e fomentando a inovação em serviços para o consumidor

Smart city simulator "phase two" : the wheelchair challenge

Many Smart City infrastructures are physical models or Lego models that are static and difficult to scale. Other existing Smart City concepts have not taken wheelchair users and their needs into account. Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), in cooperation with Oracle, assigned a project which sought to address these issues to a group from the European Project Semester. We are five international students trying to create a 3D- Simulation of a Smart City with Unity software to solve space and mobility problems. The main part of this task was to create a wheelchair accessible Smart City, which can be presented and visualized by a simulation. Right at the beginning of the project, we decided to focus not only on wheelchair users but on all kinds of physical limitations: blindness, deafness, mobility difficulties, old, young, and pregnant women. We analyzed existing concepts, asked why it is more important than ever to develop Smart City models, and make existing cities smarter. We also looked at what needs to be improved in cities in general, especially to make life easier for people with disabilities. We exchanged ideas with organizations that helped us to learn more about the everyday life of people with disabilities, we also exchanged ideas with companies that are already actively working on making cities smarter and last but not least we looked at the innovations in Oslo that are trying to make this city smarter. Based on our results and with the help of Proxima Lego City, a Lego model built by Oracle, we made a questionnaire to ask the participants what belongs in a smart city and what challenges specifically the participants with disabilities have in their everyday life in cities. After the research, the questionnaire, and the exchange with organizations and companies, we decided to create a Smart City in Universal Design, which is accessible for everyone and can be presented and experienced through a simulation. We implemented an electric autonomous public transport system, a smart trash system, a smart parking system and a smart lighting system. We also developed an app, especially adapted to our simulation, that makes the simulation appear even more real. With the help of real-time data, the app shows the advantages of a Smart City, and it also shows the advantage of having an app specifically adapted for the Smart City.Grado en Ingeniería en Electrónica Industrial y Automátic

Cyber-Physical Embedded Systems with Transient Supervisory Command and Control: A Framework for Validating Safety Response in Automated Collision Avoidance Systems

The ability to design and engineer complex and dynamical Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) requires a systematic view that requires a definition of level of automation intent for the system. Since CPS covers a diverse range of systemized implementations of smart and intelligent technologies networked within a system of systems (SoS), the terms “smart” and “intelligent” is frequently used in describing systems that perform complex operations with a reduced need of a human-agent. The difference between this research and most papers in publication on CPS is that most other research focuses on the performance of the CPS rather than on the correctness of its design. However, by using both human and machine agency at different levels of automation, or autonomy, the levels of automation have profound implications and affects to the reliability and safety of the CPS. The human-agent and the machine-agent are in a tidal lock of decision-making using both feedforward and feedback information flows in similar processes, where a transient shift within the level of automation when the CPS is operating can have undesired consequences. As CPS systems become more common, and higher levels of autonomy are embedded within them, the relationship between human-agent and machine-agent also becomes more complex, and the testing methodologies for verification and validation of performance and correctness also become more complex and less clear. A framework then is developed to help the practitioner to understand the difficulties and pitfalls of CPS designs and provides guidance to test engineering design of soft computational systems using combinations of modeling, simulation, and prototyping

Risk analysis of autonomous vehicle and its safety impact on mixed traffic stream

In 2016, more than 35,000 people died in traffic crashes, and human error was the reason for 94% of these deaths. Researchers and automobile companies are testing autonomous vehicles in mixed traffic streams to eliminate human error by removing the human driver behind the steering wheel. However, recent autonomous vehicle crashes while testing indicate the necessity for a more thorough risk analysis. The objectives of this study were (1) to perform a risk analysis of autonomous vehicles and (2) to evaluate the safety impact of these vehicles in a mixed traffic stream. The overall research was divided into two phases: (1) risk analysis and (2) simulation of autonomous vehicles. Risk analysis of autonomous vehicles was conducted using the fault tree method. Based on failure probabilities of system components, two fault tree models were developed and combined to predict overall system reliability. It was found that an autonomous vehicle system could fail 158 times per one-million miles of travel due to either malfunction in vehicular components or disruption from infrastructure components. The second phase of this research was the simulation of an autonomous vehicle, where change in crash frequency after autonomous vehicle deployment in a mixed traffic stream was assessed. It was found that average travel time could be reduced by about 50%, and 74% of conflicts, i.e., traffic crashes, could be avoided by replacing 90% of the human drivers with autonomous vehicles

Car-Snow Clearing Drone

The purpose of this MQP was to research, design, analyze, and test a robotic device to remove snow and ice off of cars. Snow on cars is a hazard for many drivers across the world. Drones are widely used in society, including agricultural drones for spraying pesticides on crops. Lightweight, yet strong, carbon fiber was used in addition to 3-D printed parts. The flying and spraying components were each tested in addition to proving the concept with multiple FEA simulations on individual components. Computer vision was used to identify how much snow remained on the car and what areas were already sprayed. The primary focus of the project was to come up with a device to aid society and potentially sell to consumers