Innovation competition NeueWege.IN.NRW

The aim of the research project is to develop data standards for construction site logistics, in particular for managing the supply and disposal transportation of construction projects. In the future, the logistics data determined in this way should provide a basis for optimized and sustainable management of companies and suppliers on the construction site.

The MONOCAB is a self-propelled, gyro-stabilized monorail that is primarily intended for use in rural areas and on disused or unused railway lines. The application comprises a sub-project of the overall project, the further development of the key technological components.

The project aims to develop a digital demonstrator that supports small and medium-sized companies in the logistics sector with sustainability reporting. The aim is to make SMEs more sustainable and better able to recognize CO2 savings.

The project aims to develop a new type of scheduling tool based on suitable AI-supported methods that can be used to promote a shift of freight traffic to inland waterway vessels and rail along selected transport corridors.

The aim is to develop a platform for researching architecture variants in software-defined vehicles based on innovative technologies such as a universally applicable test environment, platform-independent programming and the use of artificial intelligence. The aim is to improve the energy balance in the vehicle and reduce development costs.

The core of the concept is the parcel mobile: a combination of a parcel machine and a vehicle or trailer. Important components of the concept are an IT tool for the daily optimization of the locations, technology for the automatic loading and unloading of the parcel mobiles in the depots and special reusable packaging.

The project is concerned with research into end-to-end automated, intermodal drone networks and their integration into existing logistics networks, with the aim of achieving climate-neutral business parks and improving the delivery of goods between companies in suburban areas.

The aim of AIR² is to develop an automated, intermodal robot system in urban areas in order to sustainably reduce the volume of traffic on the roads and at the same time counteract the shortage of personnel. The intermodal system, consisting of a drone for outdoor and a robot for indoor transportation, combines the advantages of fast, low-risk and continuously automated transportation. Firstly, a transfer station must be developed that interacts with the drone, the robot platform and people and temporarily stores the goods. Secondly, a standardizable communication interface for automated transport between the technical systems must be designed.

This project pursues the approach of involving citizens in the planning process for inner-city streetscapes at an early stage by enabling them to "experience" the structural changes themselves through the use of new media ranging from 3D online presentations and augmented reality to virtual reality (VR) simulators. In addition, two mobile VR simulators and the new participatory approach for the use of such media in participation processes are being designed and evaluated.

The aim of the project is the integration of traffic safety in pedestrian longitudinal and especially pedestrian crossing traffic in routing software on the basis of ordinal evaluation criteria and their optimization. The central research tasks include the identification of person-related, safety-relevant characteristics in pedestrian traffic, the development of a suitable model that takes (traffic) safety and path length into account as separate criteria, as well as the construction of an adapted optimization algorithm.

The planned research project aims to develop a fully autonomous sweeper that will exceed the previous capacities of autonomous vehicle technologies. On the one hand, the focus is on the development and integration of additional automated functions such as electric charging, emptying and cleaning the collection container and refilling fresh water. The innovation of fully automating the cleaning processes goes beyond the pure driving function and thus makes general autonomous operation possible in the first place.

This project is developing a completely new approach to changing personal mobility behavior. On users' smartphones, an AI analyzes all interactions and identifies the moment of the mobility decision. If such a decision is detected, the system triggers a dedicated intervention. This then suggests the use of a more sustainable or healthier mode of transport.

The aim of the research project is to create planning support for mode selection for decision-makers in combined transport (CT). In a first step, an understanding of the behavior of decision-makers in coping with operational disruptions will be created. To this end, the factors that influence the choice of detour and the associated choice of means of transport, such as a lack of or insufficient availability of information, are to be determined. The output of the project will be a functional simulation model that maps decision-making behavior in the event of operational disruptions.

The project serves as a pioneer for digitally integrated and automated baggage handling. In order to achieve the greatest possible benefit as quickly as possible, the processes upstream and downstream of the actual air traffic, which are the task of the apron services as part of the ground handling service, are being considered. The project will focus on the digitalization and automation of baggage loading and unloading processes, which were previously carried out exclusively manually, in order to achieve the goal of reducing the workload of employees.

The SHIELD research project aims to research, further develop and test the innovative technology of a harmonic ISM radar in the field of intralogistics for the localization of AGVs and goods. The innovation of SHIELD is to make the advantages of harmonic radar systems in the mm-wave range available for industrial use. With this concept, the objects to be located can be marked with frequency-doubling tags and thus localized with the SHIELD system even in complex environments.

The aim of this research project is to realize an autonomous streetcar in the isolated, yet highly complex environment of a depot. The approach being pursued here is the fusion of distributed synchronized radar sensors and additional redundancy through ultrasonic sensors to increase reliability. This locates obstacles in the various light areas of the streetcar, from which autonomous driving commands are then generated. A higher-level UWB-based radio positioning system localizes the streetcars and visualizes their position in the depot.

The RADIKAL project is researching new ways to make drones more flexible and secure in logistics by using advanced radar sensors and cameras in AI-based sensor fusion models. The aim is to be able to react dynamically to obstacles in flight and during landing in order to create greater process reliability. By researching new sensors and algorithms that are specifically suited to the requirements of a delivery drone, flight systems should become more reliable and safer in order to exploit the enormous market potential sustainably and in the long term. To this end, new sensor designs and innovative AI functions are being integrated into logistics drones and tested and validated in realistic demonstration scenarios.

METAMOVER is both a virtual test field for transport vehicle systems and a driving simulator for virtual test and training drives. In the simulation environment, virtual transport scenarios can be generated realistically, synthetic data for machine learning can be generated, algorithms can be tested and transport processes can be tested. METAMOVER will also enable driver training in a clear and realistic representation. METAMOVER will also help to make previously impossible transport tasks possible, make optimum use of transport capacities and drive forward the development of infrastructure projects.

Based on freight wagons and semi-trailers, this project aims to use and develop multimodal transport chains in which a combined, sustainable fine distribution to the end customer is achieved. The processes upstream and downstream of the actual transport, which are the task of the logistics centers and logistics employees, are considered in order to achieve the greatest possible benefit as quickly as possible. The loading and unloading processes should be automated.

The ERS.T-NRW project is intended to combine the findings and use cases from the projects listed in the state of the art and lead to the first development of an interoperable system configuration. The aim is to consider both the energy technology part, consisting of coils and power electronics, and to develop the communication technology approach so that an interoperable, secure and trouble-free exchange of data between the vehicle and the infrastructure is made possible before, during and at the end of each charging process. The innovation of the ERS.T-NRW project lies in the project objective of developing a finely tuned and specified communication system that meets the highest requirements of dynamic, inductive charging (D-WPT systems) and can be easily integrated into vehicles built in the future or retrofitted into existing vehicles. Communication makes it possible to conserve the battery on the vehicle side and to optimize demand planning on the grid side in terms of energy and expansion requirements.