International Transportation (68) 1 | 2016 52 SCIENCE & RESEARCH Academics Projects in a nutshell Overview of selected mobility research projects Robotic falcon to scare away birds at airports A t Weeze Airport in Germany, just across the Dutch border near Nijmegen, the life-like robotic falcon “Robird” made its irst lights at an airport location. Developed by Clear Flight Solutions, a spin-of company of the University of Twente, the Robird is designed to scare away birds at airports and waste-processing plants. The cost of bird control at airports worldwide is estimated in the billions, and does not consist only of material damage, as birds can also be the cause of fatal accidents. Across the globe, birds also cause damage running into billions in the agrarian sector, the waste disposal sector, at harbours, and in the oil and gas industry. A common problem is that, since birds are clever, they quickly get used to existing bird control solutions and simply ly around them. The high-tech Robird, however, convincingly mimics the light of a real peregrine falcon. The lying behaviour of the Robird is so true to life that birds immediately believe that their natural enemy is present in the area. Because this approach exploits the birds’ instinctive fear of birds of prey, habituation is not an issue. The Robird is the lagship product of Clear Flight Solutions - a robotics and drone spin-of company of the University of Twente. The company was recently the beneiciary of an investment of EUR 1.6 million from Cottonwood Euro Technology Fund. This investment has enabled Clear Flight Solutions to become a global leader in the ield of bird management. The link with research and teaching at the University of Twente is still strong - in February, three new graduates started work at Clear Flight Solutions. There has also been a lot of interest from Saxion University of Applied Sciences. The work goes further than just electrical and mechanical engineering. Clear Flight Solutions are working on multidisciplinary solutions to social issues. red More information: https: / / www.utwente.nl Nico Nijenhuis, Master’s student at the University of Twente and CEO of Clear Flight Solutions, with “Robird” Photo: Clear Flight Solutions Wireless communication between vehicles in a 5G world R esearchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València (Polytechnic University of Valencia, UPV) have devised and conigured a new 5G radio access system for intervehicular communication. The system is intended to improve road safety in a future scenario where 5G technologies are the norm. It was presented at the Commission’s stand at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona in February 2016. A continuation of the METIS project, METIS-II is an international project funded by the European Commission under Horizon2020 to research the eicient integration and use of various 5G technologies and components. Among its end goals is to optimise the performance and interconnection of in-vehicle mobile communications systems and, by doing so, contribute to improved road safety and lower traic accident rates - though this is just one of many possible 5G applications. The main novelty of the new system is that it allows the continual adjustment of waveforms in such a way that vehicles can communicate with each other, thereby overcoming the hurdle of not having a set station for communication. In terms of hardware, the system presented in Barcelona includes three programmable cards, each of which has a high-performance FPGA (ield-programmable gate array) to integrate diferent waveforms, which are what carry data through the air, and four antennas. These cards will allow direct communication between vehicles, as well as the integration of intervehicular communications into conventional mobile communication systems. red http: / / www.upv.es To show how it will work, the iTEAM researchers have developed a virtual environment that replicates the streets of Madrid. Their demo video can be found here: https: / / www.dropbox.com/ s/ g2bwjs9hckwkroj/ WP_20160223_17_39_47_Pro.mp4? dl=0 International Transportation (68) 1 | 2016 53 Academics SCIENCE & RESEARCH Real environmental data in real time for simulations E ngineering departments at large automotive companies today use simulation when conducting virtual tests during the development phase of their new vehicle designs. This involves computing the physical properties of the cars in advance, which signiicantly shortens the testing loops with real test vehicles that often span several years. This approach is already applied, for example, in testing passive safety, acoustics, durability and reliability, as well as energy eiciency, fuel consumption and carbon emissions. At present, vehicle behavior can be simulated very well using software tools. However, it is diicult to simulate environmental inluences that have a signiicant efect on the automobile while driving, such as street conditions, weather and driving maneuvers. Experts often work with assumptions rather than with actual measured data because generating the real-life data and making it relevant for simulations is complex and expensive. Big Data expertise brings large amounts of data under control Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM) now are ofering a quick and inexpensive system that collects real data at normal driving speeds and processes this data in real time as inegrained and coarse-grained data for 3D driving simulations. The system consists of a test vehicle, a geo-referenced database and a vehicle simulator. Using two 360-degree laser scanners, the Road & Environmental Data Acquisition Rover (REDAR) captures enormous amounts of environmental data at normal driving speed - so called point cloud data. This means: Environmental data exist for each 3D coordinate. The ITWM researchers have managed to prepare the terabyte-sized dataset so that it can be used in real time in 3D interactive driving simulations. The volume of data is so large that the data cannot be easily fed into the memory of a computer system. Therefore the researchers have developed an out-of-core method to process only the data necessary for the running time in the simulator. REDAR captures data from the building fronts to the left and right and from the street in front and behind of the vehicle up to a distance of 200 meters. It also scans the road’s surface with a resolution of less than half a centimeter. An inertial platform eliminates potential movement of the vehicle from the raw data of the laser scanner so that it can be objectively processed by the software. The test vehicle has been in use since 2015 and has already been collecting data for various customer projects. Merging fineand coarse-grained data ITWM’s own driving simulator RODOS (Robot-based Driving and Operation Simulator) converts the metrics collected by REDAR. The simulator consists of a cabin system in which a steering wheel, gas and brake pedal can be operated. The driver cabin is connected to a 6-axle robot system that realistically simulates acceleration and braking maneuvers or driving around tight curves. That is why the test driver moves through a virtual world that feels very realistic after just a few minutes. The simulations are supported by data from the database system known as Virtual Measurement Campaign (VMC). The database re-creates the world’s road network with its topography, regulations, weather and additional geo-referenced data. With the data collected from the data acquisition vehicle they merge real ine-grained data with the coarse-grained data from the VMC. red More about Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM: http: / / www.itwm.fraunhofer.de/ en/ fraunhoferitwm.html Contact: Dr. Klaus Dressler, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM), Kaiserslautern (DE) klaus.dressler@itwm.fraunhofer.de The Fraunhofer ITWM system includes realistic environmental influences in driving simulations. Photo: Fraunhofer ITWM Self-driving mining truck A self-driving truck under development by Scania and Swedish research universities has tested successfully at speeds of up to 90 kilometers per hour. According to research carried out at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the successful tests are aimed at implementing self-driving Scania trucks in mining operations within a year or two. The truck drove itself with a maximum deviation of 20 centimeters from the road’s center line and travelled softly and stably even at its maximum speed of 90 km/ h. A demonstration test in a real mine is scheduled for the late autumn. KTH, Scania, Linköping University, Saab and Autoliv are collaborating in a government-funded project called iQMatic, which aims at developing a fully self-driving truck for diicult environments such as mines. The concept has been developed to the point where the truck can safely handle obstacles on the road and carry out tasks such as picking up and unloading gravel. Several researchers from KTH are participating in the project. Using Model Predictive Control (MPC), the truck can drive autonomously on narrow and winding roads. The model can predict the vehicle’s movements in every given situation, on the basis of information about what direction it’s being steered in, how much throttle is given and alternatively how much braking force is applied. MPC makes it possible to minimize deviations from the intended path, and maximize passenger comfort, by reducing side-to-side jerks in the steering, as well as by targeted acceleration and braking maneuvers. It can also optimize the vehicle’s fuel consumption. With greater mass and built-in inertia than passenger cars, trucks present a greater challenge for autonomous driving. The Scania truck used has two steering axles. The truck’s calculation model thus has to be more complex and resource-intensive. Self-driving trucks need new information every 50 milliseconds to make the right decisions about the steering, accelerator or brakes. Further information: KTH Research: https: / / www.kth.se/ en International Transportation (68) 1 | 2016 54 SCIENCE & RESEARCH Academics Liquid electricity: The world’s irst formic-acid-powered city bus V DL Bus & Coach and Team FAST, a group of students from Eindhoven University of Technology, collaborate on the development of the world’s irst city bus that runs on formic acid. While VDL Enabling Transport Solutions (VDL ETS) is constantly looking for new technologies that make it easier to extend the range of zeroemission transportation, the conversion of formic acid to hydrogen is one of these promising new technologies. VDL ETS focuses on the strategic importance of E-Mobility and carries out all pre-development projects in the area of innovative transport solutions within VDL Groep. Formic acid, or methanoic acid, is a chemical substance that also occurs in nature (ants). As a chemical product it is used for various applications. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have discovered a way to quickly and eiciently transform hydrogen into liquid formic acid and back again into hydrogen. Formic acid as liquid energy carrier can be stored and transported much more easily. Existing illing stations can be used for the energy supply, because a bus that runs on formic acid does not need to be recharged but rather ills up with formic acid, like illing a tank with diesel. This means no emission of harmful gases and a much greater range than what is currently common for vehicles with alternative powertrains. The bus that will be converted to the world’s irst formic-acid-powered bus is a- VDL Citea Electric with a length of 12-metres. The modular construction of the Citea range makes it possible to choose from various electric drive systems, battery packs and charging systems. This allows the selection of the ideal and optimal combination for each deployment area. The modular design also facilitates the necessary adaptations for driving on formic acid, without afecting accessibility, interior layout or comfort. Team FAST is a group of about 25 students from Eindhoven University of Technology. This group is engaged in the development of technology that can use formic acid as a renewable, liquid, innovative energy carrier. The team was formed in September 2015, and just four months later, on 14 January 2016, they presented a model car powered by this new discovery. Since then, Team FAST has set to work to further develop its technology to make it suitable for large vehicles too. Because Team FAST strives for a sustainable world and truly wants to make a contribution, the decision was taken to enter into a partnership with VDL. In this way Team FAST intends to demonstrate that formic acid is an attractive solution for sustainable mobility. red Further information VDL Bus & Coach: http: / / www.vdlbuscoach.com Team FAST: http: / / www.teamfast.nl/ Flake-like nanoparticles ofer reliable rust protection L arge quantities of steel are used in architecture, bridge construction and ship building. Various techniques are used to prevent corrosive substances from penetrating into the material. One common method is to create an anti-corrosion coating by applying layers of zinc phosphate. Now, research scientists at INM (Leibniz Institute for New Materials) developed a special type of zincphosphate nanoparticles. In contrast to conventional, spheroidal zinc-phosphate nanoparticles, the new nanoparticles are lakelike. They are ten times as long as they are thick. As a result of this anisotropy, the penetration of gas molecules into the metal is slowed down. In irst test coatings, the scientists were able to demonstrate that the laketype nanoparticles are deposited in layers on top of each other, thus creating a wall-like structure. This means that the penetration of gas molecules through the protective coating takes longer because they have to ind their way through the ´cracks in the wall´. As a result, the corrosion process was much slower than with usual coatings based on spheroidal nanoparticles. In a further series of tests, the scientists were able to validate the efectiveness of the new nanoparticles. To do so, they immersed steel plates in electrolyte solutions with either spheroidal zinc-phosphate nanoparticles or with lake-type zinc-phosphate nanoparticles After just half a day, the steel plates in the electrolyte solutions with spheroidal nanoparticles were showing signs of corrosion whereas the steel plates in the electrolyte solutions with lake-type nanoparticles were still in perfect condition and shining, even after three days. The researchers created their particles using standard, commercially available zinc salts, phosphoric acid and an organic acid as a complexing agent. The more complexing agent they added, the more anisotropic the nanoparticles became. Leibniz Institute for New Materials INM is an institute of the Leibniz Association and has about 220 employees. More information: http: / / www.leibniz-inm.de/ en/ Contact: Dr.-Ing. Carsten Becker-Willinger, Tel: +49 681 9300-196 nanomere@leibniz-inm.de Carpenter ant (Camponotus ligniperda) Photo: Richard Bartz/ Wikipedia