The lighthouse project Connecting Austria brings technology leaders and end-users together to demonstrate and evaluate four use cases for semi-automated and energy-efficient truck platoons.

Project DataDuration: 36 monthsProject start: 1st of January 2018

Consortium: 13 partners

Project budget: 4.3 MEuroProject funding: 2.5 MEuro

www.connecting-austria.at

Project Leader Dr. Wolfgang Schildorfer connecting-austria@hitec.at

Technical CoordinatorDr. Thomas Nowak

Dissemination ManagerElke Schrittesser, MBA

What is needed to safely and efficiently set up a semi-automated platoon, to maintain a platoon and to go back to a regular transport mode?

The lighthouse project Connecting Austria is answering this question by exploring four

use cases in three years. Key objective is an evidence-based evaluation of energy-

efficient truck platoons as a pre-requisite for competitive strength of Austrian

industries such as logistics, telematics and infrastructure providers, automotive

suppliers, vehicle development and cooperative research.

For every single vehicle in a platoon as well as for the platoon itself, specifications

of feedback control systems and motion patterns are set up. They can serve as

functional rules for approval of platoons regarding traffic law and safety, and they

allow the design of control strategies for intelligent traffic lights and infrastructure.

The specification of feedback control systems for truck platoons will be done on a

general level in order to be able to apply them for the whole traffic infrastructure.

Regarding climate and sustainability targets, Connecting Austria aims at delivering

evidence-based simulation and projection of effects of energy-efficient and semi-

automated platoons for the whole traffic infrastructure including all participants on

the road. This sustainability aspect is of fundamental value for the Austrian logistic

providers to maintain international competitiveness.

The national lighthouse project’s unique contribution is the specific focus on

infrastructure issues and on parameterized traffic perspectives when evaluating

energy-efficient and semi-automated truck platoons.

Connecting Austria boosts Austrian strategic strengths as pioneer regarding C-ITS

infrastructure and strengthens international success stories such as ECo-AT,

WienZWA, coordination activities in C-Roads and the European Green Car Initiative.

Evidence-based evaluation of infrastructure-based platoon management with C-ITS

Within the project Connecting Austria, four use cases are specified in the field of connected and semi-automated truck platoons. The focus is on two or three trucks forming a platoon.

It is planned to have several testing grounds in Salzburg, Upper-Austria and Vienna.

Use cases

UC 1 Trucks entering the motorway UC 2 Truck platoon approaching a hazardous location

UC 3 Truck platoon leaving the motorway UC 4 Truck platoon crossing an intersection

Overview of project partners and their rolesUsers:Shippers/Logistic providers:• TRANSDANUBIARoad operators/Road authorities:• ASFINAG (LOI) • City of Hallein (LOI)• City of Vienna (LOI)

Technics/Infrastructure:• Siemens AG Österreich• Swarco Futurit Verkehrssignalsysteme Ges.m.b.H.

Technics/Trucks and vehicles:• ANDATA• Automotive Cluster Upper Austria• Virtual Vehicle Competence Centre• ZF Friedrichshafen AG (LOI)

Research/Evaluation:• FH OÖ – Logistikum Steyr• HiTec Marketing• IESTA – Institute for Advanced Energy Systems & Transport Applications• KFV – Austrian Road Safety Board• SCCH – Software Competence Center Hagenberg • TU Vienna, Institute for Mechanics and Mechatronics• University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, CNL – Center for

Global Change and Sustainability

Contact: Wolfgang Schildorfer (Project leader), HiTec, Vienna, AustriaMail: connecting-austria@hitec.at · Phone: +43 1 718 25 30 17 Mobile: +43 699 1533 88 89, www.connecting-austria.at

Austrian Research Promotion Agency

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