Scipedia: Documents published in 2018

Synchronization of traffic flow and sector opening for collaborative demand and capacity balancing

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:04:27 +0100

This paper was partially funded by grants from the CSC No 201506830050 and by the SESAR Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 699338.

—This paper proposes a method to synchronize traffic flow optimization and sector opening scheduling, with the aim of achieving flexible demand and capacity balancing (DCB). Delay assignment, trajectory options and sector collapsing are used to manage the traffic demand, while sector opening schemes are to affect the airspace capacity. Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model is built to incorporate these initiatives. Three model variants are presented to illustrate the synchronization process, and their results in a real-world case study demonstrate some promising improvements for the DCB performances. Index Terms—air traffic flow management, trajectory options, dynamic sectorization, demand and capacity balancing

Peer Reviewed

Multicriteria Decision Making for Water Aerodromes Allocation in Greece

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:04:02 +0100

Greece is a country with thousands of islands and a very extensive coastline. Naturally, such a country's morphology, as well as socio-economic reasons, created the urge to develop alternative and innovative transport systems. Seaplane is a modern, eco-friendly mode, ideal for the country’s needs, allowing effortless and quick access to/from the most distant coastal areas and islands and it can be used by residents and visitors or/and for carrying shipments. The research presented herein focuses on the development of a methodological framework for the evaluation of different areas for water aerodrome allocation, initially among different islands. Among the large spectrum of existing evaluation methods, Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was selected. The suggested method to assign weights to the criteria is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the evaluation of the alternative scenarios takes place with the aid of the PROMETHEE method. The suggested methodological approach is validated through a case study; the investigation of the potential connection of Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, and a transportation hub for the southeastern Europe and the Balkans, with the Cyclades.

Impacts of a cooperative safety-related traffic information system

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:03:34 +0100

NordicWay has implemented a cooperative safety-related traffic information system based on hybrid"br" communication using a mainly cellular network. In this paper, we present NordicWay’s Finnish Coop project"br" evaluation results on driver behaviour impacts and user acceptance of the system. The evaluation was based on a"br" field test involving more than a thousand test users from May 2016 to April 2017. The results showed the high"br" acceptance by the users. The system was the first source of information in many occasions and the implications it"br" had on driver behaviour were positive (increased attention, speed reduction, less overtaking, etc.). As a main"br" conclusion, the results indicate that a cooperative safety-related traffic information system in mobile phones has"br" positive impacts on driver behaviour. The results also show that road users would be willing to use this kind of"br" system. Almost all users who had longer experience with the system would have been willing to continue using"br" the application.

Camaroptera

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:02:54 +0100

Batteryless image sensors present an opportunity for pervasive wide-spread remote sensor deployments that require little maintenance and have low cost. However, the reliance of these devices on energy harvesting presents tight constraints in the quantity of energy that can be stored and used, as well as limited, energy-dependent availability. In this work, we develop Camaroptera, the first batteryless, energy-harvesting image sensing platform to support active, long-range communication. Camaroptera reduces the high latency and energy cost of communication by using near-sensor processing pipelines to identify interesting images and transmit them to a far-away base station, while discarding uninteresting images. Camaroptera also dynamically adapts its processing pipeline to maximize system availability and responsiveness to interesting events in different harvesting conditions. We fully prototype the Camaroptera hardware platform in a compact, 2cm x 3cm x 5cm volume, composed of three adjoined circuit boards. We evaluate Camaroptera demonstrating the viability of a batteryless remote sensing platform in a small package. We show that compared to a system that transmits all image data, Camaroptera's processing pipelines and adaptive processing scheme captures and sends 2-5X more images of interest to an application.

A case study of Zurich's two-layered perimeter control

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:02:40 +0100

This paper evaluates Zurich’s perimeter control with loop detector data from the entire city. We compare the speed indices and congestion levels within the controlled area and its surrounding areas using the concept of the macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD). At times of heavy congestion, vehicles are prevented by two layers of control to enter the perimeter of the inner city. With the introduction of the concept of the MFD and the control derived thereof, Zurich’s perimeter control has received some academic attention, however, an analysis of its performance has not been reported. We find evidence that the perimeter control, which is primarily informed by the flow levels, performs well – even though such a flow-based perimeter control has not been popular with academics so far.

Exploring Vehicle Level Benefits of Revolutionary Technology Progress via Aircraft Design and Optimization

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:59:34 +0100

It is always a strong motivation for aeronautic researchers and engineers to reduce the aircraft emissions or even to achieve emission-free air transport. In this paper, the impacts of different game-changing technologies together on the reduction of aircraft fuel consumption and emissions are studied. In particular, a general tool has been developed for the technology assessment, integration and also for the overall aircraft multidisciplinary design optimization. The validity and robustness of the tool has been verified through comparative and sensitivity studies. The overall aircraft level technology assessment and optimization showed that promising fuel efficiency improvements are possible. Though, additional strategies are required to reach the aviation emission reduction goals for short and medium range configurations.

Document type: Article

Infrastructure and operation – research on utilisation of the maximum train speed profile

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:57:44 +0100

The aim of the research is to identify factors influencing real utilisation of the maximum line speed. On"br" infrastructure side main factor seems to be differentiation of the maximum speed along the line, which is taken"br" into account with the harmonic weighted mean. As far as rolling stock is concerned main factors are type of train"br" formation (loco-hauled, EMU, DMU), power-to-weight ratio and percentage of powered axles. The extensive"br" database covering the infrastructure data and rolling stock data for intercity train services in various European"br" countries has been prepared. The best utilisation of maximum line speed is in the case of long sections (300 km or"br" more) passed without intermediate stops, at which the influence of acceleration and braking is relatively minor."br" The utilisation of maximum speed is negatively influenced by significant differentiation of the speed profile"br" (frequent and large changes of speed along the line). The most effective utilisation of line capabilities is in the case"br" of Electric Motor Units (EMUs) with distributed power and high power-to-weight ratio.

Star Tracking Using an Event Camera

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:55:42 +0100

Star trackers are primarily optical devices that are used to estimate the attitude of a spacecraft by recognising and tracking star patterns. Currently, most star trackers use conventional optical sensors. In this application paper, we propose the usage of event sensors for star tracking. There are potentially two benefits of using event sensors for star tracking: lower power consumption and higher operating speeds. Our main contribution is to formulate an algorithmic pipeline for star tracking from event data that includes novel formulations of rotation averaging and bundle adjustment. In addition, we also release with this paper a dataset for star tracking using event cameras. With this work, we introduce the problem of star tracking using event cameras to the computer vision community, whose expertise in SLAM and geometric optimisation can be brought to bear on this commercially important application.

Railway cybersecurity: on the way of a common and integrated approach

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:55:30 +0100

Railway systems, as with most Industrial Automation Control Systems (IACS), have been considered immune to"br" cyber security threats and attacks for years. Nevertheless, the increase of interconnected and digitalized assets in"br" the railway sector and the parallel increase of cyber-crime targeting IACS have driven the need for a coordinated"br" approach to security assessment to deliver cyber-secure infrastructures and solutions in the railway industry. In"br" this paper, the holistic cybersecurity approach proposed by the Shift2Rail project is depicted. A security"br" assessment process is suggested for the railway industry that will deliver secure solutions and processes that are"br" consistent and encompass asset owners, system integrators and product suppliers. The assessment procedure"br" suggested blends together concepts from different international standards. In parallel, protection profiles and"br" security-by-design concepts are defined and the current threat landscape is identified with the aim of setting a"br" shared understanding and strategy for future security-related projects in the railway industry.

Design of a small size, low profile L-band antenna, optimized for space-based ADS-B signal reception

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:55:04 +0100

traffic services, like the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), already became a fundamental part in the civil and military aviation by the provision of aircraft tracking on ground and from space, in controlled and noncontrolled airspaces. In particular, the surveillance of aircraft from space has been identified as a trend-setting service and demand. In this paper, we present the design of a small size, low profile patch antenna, optimized for aircraft signal detection in spacecraft applications. The proposed antenna design is circularly polarized, using a single-feed configuration and it is tailored to small dimensions and the operation in a space environment.

Workshop SRM Drives an Alternative for E‐Traction : Proceedings

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:54:53 +0100

Electrification of road vehicles is one of the most consistent initiatives to achieve a clean, environmentally friendly and efficient transport system. The choice of the electric machine for the powertrain is an important consideration, nowadays tilted towards permanent magnet synchronous machines. However, rare earth permanent magnet supply drawbacks open up new prospects for other types of machines, such as switched reluctance machines. The Workshop aims to be a meeting point for groups that are currently working on the development of Switched Reluctance Motor drives (SRMD) and an opportunity to establish future collaborations. The Workshop consists of two parts. In the first part, in the morning, participants, all by invitation, will present new types of switched reluctance machines for electric traction applications. In the second part, in the afternoon, all participants will discuss what aspects slow down the application of SRMD for electric traction and their possible solutions.

Sustainable Transport And Corporate Sustainability Performance: Mediating Role Of Islamic Work Ethics

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:54:21 +0100

Potentials and advantages of applying geographic information systems in various fields of traffic engineering

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:53:56 +0100

n enormous amount of data in real space and better means of collecting, storing, analyzing and modeling are available through to the use of modern ICT solutions. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are developed to make their basic operations a matrix for a thorough knowledge of the real world. With the development of modern information and communication technologies, these systems have become the means of an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to research, regardless of the space size and the dynamics of phenomena in it. Using the power of GIS systems, it is possible to improve and facilitate operations in all segments of traffic engineering, from planning to traffic management by performing spatial analyzes with appropriate visualization. Real benefits of using GIS are reflected in possibility of integrating spatial data with other types of information, such as various measurements in traffic and traffic statistics, into a single application for complex analysis. GIS enables the detection of patterns that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to notice, and provides additional assistance in essential understanding of complex real systems such as the transport system itself.

Fast and accurate object detection in high resolution 4K and 8K video using GPUs

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:51:36 +0100

Machine learning has celebrated a lot of achievements on computer vision tasks such as object detection, but the traditionally used models work with relatively low resolution images. The resolution of recording devices is gradually increasing and there is a rising need for new methods of processing high resolution data. We propose an attention pipeline method which uses two staged evaluation of each image or video frame under rough and refined resolution to limit the total number of necessary evaluations. For both stages, we make use of the fast object detection model YOLO v2. We have implemented our model in code, which distributes the work across GPUs. We maintain high accuracy while reaching the average performance of 3-6 fps on 4K video and 2 fps on 8K video.

Verification and Validation of Static Structural and Explicit Dynamic Simulations Respectively for Plastic Products with Especial Care for Automotive Application

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:44:26 +0100

Nowadays, the finite element analyses provide beneficial support in many fields of engineering by means of their cost, time and capacity saving characteristics. During the analyses, the one of the key elements is the correctly defined material properties. This is especially true for the plastics due to their orthotropic and nonlinear material properties as plasticity, relaxation or creep for example. Additionally, the applications of the plastics are widely spread in the automotive engineering beside the other sectors of the industry. Hence, the main goal of the present research is to verify static structural and to validate impact dynamic simulation results by the available material data and actually performed measurement results respectively. Tensile test and creep simulations were carried out in Ansys Workbench software for comparing the static structural simulation results with the available material data given by the material manufacturer in case of the used test samples, boundary conditions and material properties. Following the verification, the material models were applied for a specimen and for a model of an existing product in order to complete validation of the explicit dynamic simulation’s results. Real vertical hammer tests were set up and performed for this purpose and the same procedure was simulated also in order to be able to compare the results and drawn conclusions about the accuracy of the calculation method.

What do Data tell us? The Story of the European Logistics and Road Freight Transportation Sector

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:44:15 +0100

Within this paper, an analysis of the road freight transport and logistics market at EU level is presented. Based on the findings of the AEOLIX project, a preliminary analysis of the market size, volume and share of the logistics sector in Europe is presented herein, along with the respective allocation of costs in differentiated categories. Similarly, the road freight transport sector is examined in terms of volume of transported goods and its evolution in time, number of freight transport operations by commercial vehicles, vehicles’ age and kilometers travelled, distance class, and volume of cabotage in Europe. The paper concludes with a critical analysis of the presented data, delivering key messages for the future of freight transport in Europe regarding world trends, future drivers for successful business options in the sector and the role of SMEs therein, current needs in terms of services and associated environmental concerns.

Ore liquefaction experimental analysis with centrifuge rolling test

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:44:02 +0100

XVI DECGE 2018 Proceedings of the 16th Danube European Conference on Geotechnical Engineering, SKOPJE, MACÉDOINE DU NORD, 07-/06/2018 - 09/06/2018; To study the development of liquefaction in ore cargo during maritime transportation, a new Rolling Test device has been designed to support similar stresses than those observed in a vessel. It can be used in an 80×g macrogravity field in the 5.5m radius IFSTTAR geo-centrifuge. Its main characteristics and benchmark test results are presented.

The E-ferry: Energy efficient hull design

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:43:06 +0100

The E-ferry is a fully electric, battery-powered passenger ferry, which will run on green wind mill energy and consequently will have no greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. As a fully emission free vessel, the E-ferry is exempt from following IMO’ Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI). Current battery technology means, however, that the more energy a vessel requires, the more battery capacity needs to be installed, and the more weighty and costly it will be to build. Consequently, fully electric vessels need to be designed in the most energy efficient manner possible. In this paper, we discuss different parameters that can be adjusted to decrease the power consumption of vessels. We conclude that most of these solutions are neither socio-economically or operationally feasible for passenger ferries. We consequently propose one main design dimension that can reduce the energy requirement of battery-powered passenger ferries - hull design – and present the E-ferry hull.

Moving towards Green Public Procurement in Belgium

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:41:50 +0100

Integrating sustainability in the road construction sector is omnipresent and is still gaining interest. This paper"br" specifically addresses the topic of environment-friendly and sustainable procurement of road works (Green"br" Public Procurement). The Belgian Road Research Centre has formed a national working group with members"br" from road administrations, road contractors, and sustainability experts."br" The main objectives of this working group are to help road authorities (at the national and regional levels) in the"br" process of including sustainability indicators in their road tenders, with a view to achieving Green Public"br" Procurement in their road projects, and to keep abreast of new developments: European guidelines, best practices"br" in the sector, progress in other sectors such as the building industry, and certification in other sectors and in road"br" construction."br" The aim is to define the most important sustainability (environmental-social-financial) indicators in the life cycle"br" of a road pavement, and use the evaluation of these to come to an overall assessment of the road’s sustainability"br" for use as a criterion in tendering. Pragmatic choices are made from the basket of sustainability indicators to"br" keep the methodology easy and simple yet objective, without aspiring to a full life cycle analysis."br" A pilot project has been set up with global warming potential, the depletion of materials, noise, responsible"br" sourcing, road availability and annoyance to people, and direct construction costs as environmental, social and"br" financial indicators. Each of these is split up into sub-indicators (such as road transport, recycled contents, tyreroad"br" noise, or rolling resistance) that are all assessed by an easy procedure for both the contractor and the road"br" administration, respectively, thereby delivering and checking the sustainability information in the tender."br" The evaluation leads to a single value, i.e., a weighted sustainability score. This score affects the actual tender"br" price in such way that direct costs as well as the sustainability score both determine which contractor wins the"br" bid."br" The paper describes the implementation of the methodology in the pilot project.

Sustainability of Railway Passenger Services: A Review of Aspects, Issues, Contributions and Challenges of Life Cycle Emissions

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:41:26 +0100

This paper presents a review of research and models regarding sustainability of railway passenger services. In order to take into account all relevant aspects in terms of environmental impacts of a railway passenger service, a holistic system perspective is required, that includes a whole life cycle assessment. A life cycle approach is important since comparison of for instance only the exhaust emissions of an electric vehicle with a petrol vehicle is misleading, due to neglecting the emissions of for instance electrical energy production process. Thus, all stages in energy carrier, vehicle and infrastructure life cycles are to be considered. Existing models are analyzed, as well as possible developments, focusing on diesel and electrical traction as the most common traction options in use, and on GHG emissions, especially on CO2, which takes the greatest part in all emissions. Issues and challenges in improving the environmental impact of railway passenger services are addressed. Additionally, several areas are indicated where environmental aspects could be included in future assessment models. The main challenge is answering how the existing partial assessments can be brought together and, together with filling the identified gaps, allow to conduct a comprehensive LCA which will produce real-world emissions estimations. Results of this paper will be used as an input in developing a framework for quantifying and improving overall environmental impacts of a railway passenger service.

Electric energy storage in DC traction power supply systems

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:40:13 +0100

Electric energy storage systems have been known for a long time. In order to store energy the following"br" solutions may be used: mechanical (rotating wheels, compressed air), chemical (hydrogen), electrical (batteries"br" and supercapacitors), and others. Supercapacitors and batteries are most common in electric traction systems."br" They are installed in vehicles and substations. They are most widely used in traction power supply systems of"br" 600 V DC and are mainly intended for storage of braking energy, which allows saving energy. Work has begun"br" on the storage of braking energy in the 3 kV DC system and research and measurements are carried out. In the"br" paper, the concept of an energy storage system designed to be used on 3 kV DC power supply system is"br" presented, where batteries are used as the energy storage systems. It is designed to work in traction substations"br" and sectioning cabins. It can be used on all DC traction power supply systems.

SYNCHRO-NET: a powerful and innovative synchro-modal supply chain eco-NET

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:39:13 +0100

SYNCHRO-NET is a Horizon 2020 European research project that aims to overcome the stress due to increasing transportation distances, higher complexity, and vulnerability of supply chains. The core of the SYNCHRO-NET solution is an integrated optimisation and simulation eco-NET system that supports stakeholders’ decisions in the transport of goods at strategic and operational levels. In particular, the system enables stakeholders to identify improvement opportunities by quickly analysing and calculating the impacts and benefits of slow/smart steaming and synchro-modality so to enhance sustainability, quality, and reliability. Three case studies considering pan-European and regional trade lanes, as well as commercial activities between Far East and European ports, prove the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall system.

Supporting Urban Integrated Transport Systems: Transferable Tools for Local Authorities (SUITS)

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:38:56 +0100

SUITS is a European Project aimed at fostering capabilities of cities in implementing Sustainable Urban"br" Mobility Plans (SUMPs) measures. A survey was implemented at the beginning of the project to characterise"br" nine cities within the consortium through three main activities: an expert assessment based on a set of"br" quantitative indicators related to the actual offer of transport, a self-assessment on the level of actions of the city"br" stakeholders regarding different aspects linked to SUMPSs implementation and an assessment of the areas on"br" which most support is needed. The first two assessments pointed to the same bipartition of the cities in two sets"br" which can be labelled as “leader” and “follower”, on the basis of the relative performances in the different"br" ambits. Both leader and follower cities show needs in areas such as non-motorised transport, intermodality or"br" electric mobility, whereas the most urgent needs when considering policy priorities are related to non-motorised"br" and public transport, urban logistics, mobility management and electric mobility.

Dark number and the relation between infringements and penalties

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:38:43 +0100

The main objective of this study was to calculate the total amount of traffic infringements in Belgium for drunk driving, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt and handling a phone while driving. This includes both the observed as the non-observed infringements. The latter is the dark number. Calculations were based on three methodologies: self-reports and two types of observations (data collected by researchers and data collected by official authorities). The results show that the risk of being caught for speeding is much higher compared to other behaviour. For drunk driving, a Belgian driver can drive 58,000 km while being drunk. The calculations for not wearing a seatbelt are even worse: a Belgian driver can drive 80,000 unbelted km in Belgium. The results of the present study conclude that extra efforts are needed in Belgium to increase the probability of detection for all kinds of unsafe behaviour on the road.

What Makes Audio Event Detection Harder than Classification?

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:35:07 +0100

There is a common observation that audio event classification is easier to deal with than detection. So far, this observation has been accepted as a fact and we lack of a careful analysis. In this paper, we reason the rationale behind this fact and, more importantly, leverage them to benefit the audio event detection task. We present an improved detection pipeline in which a verification step is appended to augment a detection system. This step employs a high-quality event classifier to postprocess the benign event hypotheses outputted by the detection system and reject false alarms. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed pipeline, we implement and pair up different event detectors based on the most common detection schemes and various event classifiers, ranging from the standard bag-of-words model to the state-of-the-art bank-of-regressors one. Experimental results on the ITC-Irst dataset show significant improvements to detection performance. More importantly, these improvements are consistent for all detector-classifier combinations.

Comment: Published version available at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8081709

Document type: Conference object

Advancing Active Safety Towards The Protection Of Vulnerable Road Users By Evolution Of Adas Solutions That Meet Real-World Deployment Challenges: The Project Prospect

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:33:05 +0100

dents involving Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) are still a very significant issue for road safety. ´PROactive Safety for PEdestrians and CyclisTs´ is a collaborative research project funded by the European Commission. The objective of PROSPECT is to significantly improve the effectiveness of active VRU safety systems compared to those currently on the market by: (i) expanding the scope of scenarios addressed (ii) improving the overall Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) system performance (iii) proposing extensive validation methodologies. Concepts for sensors and control systems will be shown in three vehicle demonstrators and a mobile driving simulator and tested with novel VRU dummy specimen. Those systems address the well-known barriers of current AEB systems such as limited sensors field-of-view, fuzzy path prediction, unreliable intent recognition and slow reaction times for the actuation. The findings contribute not only to the augmentation of state-of-the-art knowledge but as well to technical innovations like assessment methodologies and tools for testing.

Deep Learning Application for 3D LiDAR Odometry Estimation in Autonomous Vehicles

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:30:41 +0100

From the accumulation of past and repeated experiences, driving a vehicle for most people has become almost an"br" automatism. People do it without being really conscious of all the multiple tasks involved. When it comes to"br" autonomous driving, it is a great challenge to transform this acquired knowledge into machine learning techniques."br" Progressively deep learning has become the best tool to use for autonomous driving vehicle since it is possible to"br" emulate the behavior of the human brain in a large number of intelligent vehicles applications. The most common"br" use of this type of techniques has been the implementation of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for"br" classification and identification of obstacles and pedestrians in the vehicle’s surroundings. CNNs are especially"br" dedicated to image analysis and, even though they have been succesfully used for classification and pattern"br" learning, it is possible to use them for regression. Therefore, with a CNN architecture, continuous data can be"br" predicted, like other classical neural networks. On the other hand, an accurate knowledge of vehicle odometry is"br" of vital importance in autonomous driving. When exact positioning by GPS is not possible, knowing the trajectory"br" and specific location of vehicle become fundamental for safety. While using the advantages of CNN, this paper"br" presents a deep learning application that estimates continuously the vehicle speed and yaw rate to realize the"br" reconstruction of the car’s odometry. Since CNNs are suited for training with imagery, a 3D LiDAR sensor has"br" been used for the recognition of the environment as well as reconstruction of data-images. The results indicate that"br" the network’s architecture is able to estimate the speed and yaw rate from the LiDAR’s data-images. These facts"br" can be used to support autonomous navigation.

A General Pipeline for 3D Detection of Vehicles

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:30:27 +0100

utonomous driving requires 3D perception of vehicles and other objects in the in environment. Much of the current methods support 2D vehicle detection. This paper proposes a flexible pipeline to adopt any 2D detection network and fuse it with a 3D point cloud to generate 3D information with minimum changes of the 2D detection networks. To identify the 3D box, an effective model fitting algorithm is developed based on generalised car models and score maps. A two-stage convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed to refine the detected 3D box. This pipeline is tested on the KITTI dataset using two different 2D detection networks. The 3D detection results based on these two networks are similar, demonstrating the flexibility of the proposed pipeline. The results rank second among the 3D detection algorithms, indicating its competencies in 3D detection.

Comment: Accepted at ICRA 2018

Bridge scour monitoring technique using the vibratory response of rods embedded in the riverbed

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:30:12 +0100

Proceedings of 7th Transport Research Arena : TRA 2018, VIENNE, AUTRICHE, 16-/04/2018 - 16/09/2018; Local scour is a major risk threatening the stability and sustainability of bridges across rivers and in coastal areas. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a monitoring technique based on the dynamic response of rods embedded in the riverbed. First, extensive laboratory tests are conducted to investigate the effect of scour on the vibratory response of different rods in sand and in saturated clay soil. Secondly, a numerical finite element model is developed and validated with these laboratory tests. This model is then used to assess the effect of the added mass of water on the sensor. Finally, based on the numerical and experimental results, a simplified analytical cantilever model is proposed to correlate the dynamic response of the rods to the current scour depth.

Document type: Conference object

Localization and Guidance of Individuals or Groups in Multi-modal Transit Situations Using a Novel Cooperative Positioning Concept based on Differential Wi-Fi

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:28:34 +0100

There is still limited understanding of people’s behaviours in transit situations, which results in a gap in smoothly"br" guiding users from a start to a destination in multi-modal transportation networks. Thereby an increasing number"br" of personal mobility scenarios require the localization of individuals or a group of end users within a group or"br" neighbourhood. Not rarely, this is the case in adverse operating conditions where only limited positioning"br" persons is not sufficient for real-time passenger guidance. A solution to this problem is referred to as Cooperative"br" Positioning (CP). In CP, end user localization is performed using its own measurement data plus any additional"br" information coming from neighbouring users in the form of inter-nodal ranges or other means. In this study,"br" absolute indoor localization of a user group is enabled with a novel differential Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity, a.k.a."br" WLAN) positioning approach. Similar to Differential GPS (DGPS), the received signal strength (RSS)"br" measurements of the Wi-Fi access points (APs) are corrected to reduce short- and long-time variations of the RSS"br" at the user side by the use of reference stations. In addition, continuous positioning is achieved by integration of"br" other smartphone sensors, such as accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope and barometric pressure sensor. From"br" the calculated positions, trajectories of the users are derived which are processed with machine learning methods"br" and analysed in view of the movement behaviour of the group. Using these trajectories guidance information is"br" derived with regard to a possible group subdivision and management on different routes, for instance, in the case"br" of large crowds during an emergency situation or service interruption. Thus, the traffic flow and security aspect is"br" fulfilled. A further main attention in this study is led on the support of people with limited mobility and visually"br" impaired. These challenging tasks can only be achieved if a positioning and tracking concept on the micro-level"br" in the stations is provided for all end-users. In the practical evaluation, static and kinematic tests using a number"br" of users carrying different smartphones were conducted in an indoor lab setting. Raspberry Pi’s served as reference"br" stations and APs together with inclusions of available and visible Wi-Fi APs. One user enabled the hotspot function"br" on his mobile device so that the other users can measure the RSS to derive inter-nodal ranges. It could be proven"br" that the new CP DWi-Fi approach outperforms conventional localization algorithms due to a significant"br" improvement of the indoor positioning and tracking accuracy.

Laboratory test methods for determining freeze resistance of unbound materials in road pavements

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:28:22 +0100

Freezing and ground water in road constructions have a strong influence on the asphalt layer and unbound layer of road pavement. This is also one of the main problems that lead to many and frequent remediation works of all types of roads in Slovenia. After winters with temperatures under 0 °C, asphalt layers become full of cracks and other damages. Over the last years, remediation work with different types of retreatment is increasingly used instead of reconstructing with excavation of the entire sub-base layer and changing the material with new, freeze-resistant material. These new technologies influenced the development of a new method for determining freeze resistance of recycled material."br" Remediation work on a national road in the western part of Slovenia was done with in-situ pavement retreatment, which includes mixing old unbound material with reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and 3 % of cement. The testing method and requirements for freeze-resistant material are prescribed (amount of fine particles, particle size distribution, etc.) in the National technical specifications for road constructions. The prescribed method for determining freeze resistance is time consuming and takes approximately a month. Our main task was to find a method that will be as reliable as the method prescribed in the National technical specifications, but would not take more than a week. Following that goal and also finding the limited amount of allowed fine particles content for studied retreatment work, two different types of freeze tests were performed with the excavated material. The results from laboratory tests are presented as well as the method developed for determining freeze resistance of unbound in-situ retreatment material.

Comprehensive noise assessment in complex situations with more than one mode of transport

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:27:20 +0100

The exposure to noise from more than one source is no rarity nowadays. In most cases the assessment of"br" immission load is performed for each traffic carrier individually and superposition of different sound levels is"br" not treated in any special way when mitigation measures are realized. Thus, health-impairing situations are not"br" properly resolved or even remain undetected. In order to establish a comprehensive approach for the joint"br" evaluation of road, railway, aircraft and shipping noise immission, we look at different test cases, which serve as"br" exemplary scenarios for critical noise situations. By comparing different calculation and assessment methods"br" (e.g. energetic sum, spectral analysis, weighted noise index, VDI 3722-2 ...) we want to give first answers to the"br" questions: How to calculate the overall sound level when several noise sources are present? How to consider the"br" diverse physiological and psychological effects of noise on people? What are possible unambiguous indicators"br" for triggering acoustically effective mitigation measures?

Will Jakarta Still Have Traffic Congestion after MRT?

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:26:06 +0100

Experimental and CFD Modelling of the Drift Flux in Two-Phase Air(Non) Newtonian Slug-Flow Pattern Flow along Horizontal and Inclined Pipelines

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:25:53 +0100

Dementia on the move: Preliminary results based on a participative qualitative research project focusing on the daily mobility patterns of people with dementia

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:23:44 +0100

ound 130,000 people with dementia are currently living in Austria. Most of them continue living at home as long as possible after being diagnosed. People with dementia and their relatives undergo a progressive process of withdrawing from various social activities, which is accompanied by a reduction of their mobility in public space. However, mobility is a major factor that influences the degree of social participation of people with dementia. Up to now, knowledge on how people with dementia experience accessibility in public spaces within metropolitan areas of Austria has been very limited. Based on a qualitative case study approach, this research project carried out narrative interviews with people with dementia, assembled focus groups with relatives and associates, and used participant observations i.e. organised walks undertaken by the researchers as well as usability studies of transport information systems together with people with dementia. These studies were then analysed in-depth and compared to the daily mobility patters in public spaces of people with dementia living in Vienna.

A co-creation approach to identifying vehicle-sharing concepts for future markets

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:23:12 +0100

While ‘the sharing economy’ is widely promoted as one of the most promising solutions to changing lifestyles in the field of mobility, huge uncertainty still exists regarding which future vehicle-sharing concepts should be developed to meet the very wide range of specific, individual needs. To reduce this uncertainty, new approaches are established and evaluated to integrate the perspective of different customer groups into the innovation process directly and continuously. One very promising approach in this context is ‘co-creation’."br" This paper presents both the methodology and the results of its application, developed in the co-creation project “ProVIL – product development with future users in a virtual idea laboratory” conducted in 2017 with a group of Mechanical Engineering Master’s students focusing on the development of vehicle-sharing concepts for future users. To ensure relevance and quality of their concepts, the students used a wide range of existing and new innovation procedures, which were evaluated during the project in the sense of empirical Live-Lab studies.

Effective Prediction of Road Segment Occupancy for the Route-Reservation Architecture

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:21:25 +0100

The effect of traffic congestion within an urban region can be eliminated by curbing the number of vehicles that use the congested part of the transport network. To do so, earlier work by the authors introduced a novel route-reservation architecture that manages the vehicle departure times and makes the appropriate routing decisions so that vehicles arrive at their destination at the earliest possible time avoiding the congested parts of the network Menelaou et al. (2017a,b). Under the proposed route-reservation architecture, the future state of each road segment is predicted based on the received reservations and assuming that all vehicles travel at a constant speed which is set equal with the free-flow speed. Even within a homogeneous region, this assumption is not always valid which can lead to non accurate estimation of the time that a vehicle occupies a road segment which in turn affects the accuracy of the overall architecture. Therefore, the key objective of this work is to investigate different prediction schemes that improve the prediction-accuracy of vehicles travel times within each road segment. In this paper we explore two prediction methods, an Exponential Moving Average (EMA) and a Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) method. The performance of the two prediction schemes is also presented. Finally, realistic simulation results across an urban region of San Francisco demonstrate the gains that can be achieved applying the proposed prediction methods. C. Menelaou and P. Kolios and S. Timotheou and C.G. Panayiotou, "Effective Prediction of Road Segment Occupancy for the Route-Reservation Architecture", 2018 15th IFAC Symposium on Control in Transportation Systems CTS 2018, IFAC-PapersOnLine, pp 470 - 475, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.07.07. Copyrights belong to Elsevier 2018 LTD

Analysis of the GNSS Error Distribution for the Generation of a Cooperative Environment Model for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:20:56 +0100

Ontology for Transcription of ATC Speech Commands of SESAR 2020 Solution PJ.16-04

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:20:25 +0100

Nowadays Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) applications are increasingly successful in the air traffic (ATC) domain. Paramount to achieving this is collecting enough data for speech recognition model training. Thousands of hours of ATC communication are recorded every day. However, the transcription of these data sets is resource intense, i.e. writing down the sequence of spoken words, and more importantly, interpreting the relevant semantics. Many different approaches including CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communications) currently exist in the ATC community for command transcription, a fact that e.g. complicates exchange of transcriptions. The partners of the SESAR funded solution PJ.16-04 are currently developing on a common ontology for transcription of controller-pilot communications, which will harmonize integration of ASR into controller working positions. The resulting ontology is presented in this paper.

Simulator Evaluation of the Final Approach Spacing Tool

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:19:40 +0100

This paper describes the design and simulator evaluation of an automation tool for assisting terminal radar approach controllers in sequencing and spacing traffic onto the final approach course. The automation tool, referred to as the Final Approach Spacing Tool (FAST), displays speed and heading advisories for arrivals as well as sequencing information on the controller's radar display. The main functional elements of FAST are a scheduler that schedules and sequences the traffic, a 4D trajectory synthesizer that generates the advisories, and a graphical interface that displays the information to the controller. FAST has been implemented on a high performance workstation. It can be operated standalone in the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Facility or as an element of a system integrated with automation tools in the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC). FAST was evaluated by experienced TRACON controllers in a realtime air traffic control simulaton. Simulation results summarized in the paper show that FAST significantly reduced controller workload and demonstrated a potential for an increase in landing rate.

An algorithm to minimize the expectation time of finding a parking place in urban area

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:16:22 +0100

Urban Parking is a problem that costs time and energy. That is why intelligent parking is a field of research that is growing very quickly. In a city where no sensor infrastructure within each place is deployed but only a counting system at every intersection is available, we show that it still possible to propose an efficient method that determines an itinerary that minimizes the expected time to find an available parking place. For this, we first model the urban area by a graph. Then, we implement an algorithm constructing step by step the itinerary. At each step, we choose the next segment by an evaluation of the future expectation time within this segment. We evaluate the performance of the algorithm by realistic simulations. The simulation data are extracted from the map of Versailles.

Fast Simultaneous People Detection and Re-identification in a Single Shot Network

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:16:04 +0100

traditional re-identification pipeline consists of a detection and re-identification step, i.e. a person detector is run on an input image to get a cutout which is then sent to a separate re-identification system. In this work we combine detection and re-identification into one single pass neural network. We propose an architecture that can do re-identification simultaneously with detection and classification. The effect of our modification has only a negligible impact on detection accuracy, and adds the calculation of re-identification vectors at virtually no cost. The resulting re-identification vector is strong enough to be used in speed sensitive applications which can benefit from an additional re-identification vector in addition to detection. We demonstrate this by using it as detection and re-identification input for a real-time person tracker. Moreover, unlike traditional detection + re-id pipelines our single-pass network’s computational cost is not dependent on the number of people in the image. ispartof: pages:49-54 ispartof: IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-based Surveillance pages:49-54 ispartof: 15th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-based Surveillance location:Auckland, New Zealand date:27 Nov - 30 Nov 2018 status: published

Distributed Internet Paths Performance Analysis through Machine Learning

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:15:51 +0100

International audience; Internet path changes are frequently linked to path inflation and performance degradation; therefore, predicting their occurrence is highly relevant for performance monitoring and dynamic traffic engineering. In this paper we showcase DisNETPerf and NETPerfTrace, two different and complementary tools for distributed Internet paths performance analysis, using machine learning models.

Evaluation of Augmented Reality Tools for the provision of Tower Air Traffic Control using An Ecological Interface Design

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:15:37 +0100

One of the major problems faced by the growth of air traffic in the last decade is the limited capacity of the runway especially during low visibility procedures (LVP) due to fog and bad weather. To solve this issue, the project “Resilient Synthetic Vision for Advanced Control Tower Air Navigation Service Provision” (RETINA) project, a two-years exploratory research project, under SESAR2020 program, proposes to use new Synthetic Vision (SV) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies for the tower controllers to allow them to conduct safe operations under any Meteorological Conditions while maintaining a high runway throughput, equal to good visibility. In this paper we introduce the Ecological Interface Design (EID) as a methodology to investigate the potential and applicability of SV tools and Virtual/Augmented Reality (V/AR) display techniques for the Air Traffic Control (ATC) service provision by the airport control tower. We explain how the EID framework can be used in RETINA, we experiment the framework on a suitable airport and we provide the EID results comparing normal and LVP conditions with operations using RETINA technologies.

Cyber Security of the Railway wireless system: detection, decision and Human-in-the-Loop

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:15:15 +0100

International audience; The networks used in the Railway domain are usually heterogeneous, not enough protected and not fitted to the usual Cyber Security requirements in terms of sustainability, protection and attack detection. Furthermore, the quick evolution of the telecommunication means, the threats and the sustainability aspects have to be taken into account in order to protect the Railway system. The paper presents the first contributions on Cyber Security for railways that can be divided into three main aspects dealing with the Cyber Security of the wireless part of the railway communication system: detection, decision and Human-in-the-Loop. Part of the work will be devoted to the development of an Open Pluggable Framework (OPF). The OPF is a software framework based on automation principles. It monitors the environment, then some algorithms detect abnormal behaviours, and next, OPF decides which reaction to take and finally apply this action (e.g. an alarm or a reconfiguration). The last part " human in the loop " aims at answering the questions: what happens if the automatic countermeasures fail and how the driver can cope with the attack consequences. It consists in placing professional drivers and OCC operators (Operational Control Center) in a realistic simulator and playing scenarios involving attacks. Scenarios are deduced of a vulnerability analysis and human-system resilience is studied experimentally in observing the human abilities to detect, to understand and to react to (simulated) cyber-attacks, or to their consequences. A preliminary methodology is proposed and discussed through a concrete case study.

Document type: Conference object

Can technologically assisted travel surveys improve mode choice modelling? Differences and improvements compared to travel conventional survey data.

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:14:45 +0100

Travel surveys often serve as the primary input for the creation of traffic simulations models, in particular as the"br" data basis for the estimation of mode choice models. In this paper we investigate the differences of technologically"br" assisted data (TAD) and conventional travel survey data for mode choice modelling. We describe the necessary"br" steps to enable the use of TAD for mode choice modelling like data pre-processing, choice set generation and the"br" adaptation of the travel times in the choice set to fit those in the TAD. Model estimation shows that TAD enables a"br" better prediction of modal splits compared to the models estimated on the conventional survey data. Furthermore"br" TAD offers a clear advantage when predicting walking times in the trips. Lastly, the influence of misclassification"br" in the automated mode detection on the prediction of modal split and walking times is studied. Finally, a short"br" overview is given on how TAD can be used for route choice modelling which is a further advantage of the new"br" collection technology.

Human-in-the-Loop Evaluation of Dynamic Multi-Flight Common Route Advisories

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:13:58 +0100

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) National Campaign II

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:12:54 +0100

TRANSFORMERS - Configurable and Adaptable Trucks and Trailers for Optimal Transport

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:11:11 +0100

Proceedings of 7th Transport Research Arena TRA 2018, VIENNE, AUTRICHE, 16-/04/2018 - 19/04/2019; This contribution is based on the European collaborative project TRANSFORMERS (Configurable and adaptable trucks and trailers for optimal transport), which received co-funding from the European Commission. The project has the goal of reducing energy use per tonne.kilometre of goods transported by up to 25%. This is achieved by innovations including: i) Configurable whole vehicle aerodynamics, ii) Improved loading efficiency measures, iii) A distributed, trailer mounted electric driveline known as 'hybrid-on-demand' for truck-semitrailer combinations. The combination of innovations gives the possibility of a semi-trailer combination which can be adapted or re-configured to suit individual transport missions. The paper focuses on providing background to the project, an overview of the innovations developed within the project, and the main conclusions that were drawn from the wide range of work undertaken within the project. It covers both the 'Energy Efficiency' and the 'Load Optimisation' trailers which were developed and tested within the project.

Document type: Conference object

Visioning and Practicing Electrification of Public Transport in Europe: Methodology and Results from the ELIPTIC Experience

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:09:32 +0100

ELIPTIC (2015-2018) is a project funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 framework, to"br" develop 20 new concepts to optimise existing electric public transport infrastructure and rolling stock. ELIPTIC"br" deploys such new concepts on 21 use cases in 11 cities across Europe. The goal is to demonstrate that the further"br" take-up of electric vehicles can be done in a cost-efficient way, with tangible effects on the urban environment."br" The ELIPTIC outcomes are independently assessed according to a methodology specifically designed. ELIPTIC"br" also relies on a User Forum involving public transport practitioners who assist in the development of the project,"br" providing feedback. The paper therefore describes the ELIPTIC concepts under test and the adopted assessment"br" methodology, along with the outcomes thus far achieved, with the goal to provide advanced scientific knowledge"br" for further applications beyond ELIPTIC.

Evaluation of a Wind Farm Parametrization for Mesoscale Atmospheric Flow Models with Aircraft Measurements

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:08:47 +0100

Large offshore wind farms are usually clustered around transmission grids to minimize the expense of transmission and due to space military zones, pipelines and constrains due to other uses such as nature preserves. However, this close proximity can undermine power production in downwind wind farms due to wakes from upwind wind farms. Therefore, the wind energy industry has great interest in determining the spatial dimensions of offshore wind farm wakes to assess the economical potential of planned wind farms. In this work we use wake measurements conducted by a research aircraft to evaluate the performance of a wind farm parameterization (WFP) in a mesoscale model during stably-stratified atmospheric conditions, in which the wake is expected to be the strongest. The observations were conducted on the 10 September 2016 within the project WIPAFF (Wind PArk Far Field) at the North Sea. The observations allow evaluation of both the horizontal and the vertical dimensions of the wake. The model simulates the length and most of the time the spatial dimensions of the wake. Further, we show that the largest potential for improving the performance of theWFP is rooted in an improvement of the background flow. This is due to the fact that the mesoscale model has problems representing the atmospheric boundary layer in the transition between land to open sea.

Making Infrastructure Fit for Automated Driving

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:07:25 +0100

Does automated driving need any infrastructure (adjustment) at all? Is this discussion rather car manufacturers’"br" and telematics industry’s proactive market development? Will Europe risk its strategic technological strength in"br" transport management by trying to learn abroad? A joint effort in cross-industry research and development has"br" brought significant achievements in the field of connected driving in Europe. In this paper we evaluate recent"br" achievements in connected driving and outline next-level challenges in bringing connected driving and automated"br" driving to metropolitan areas. Based upon our lessons learnt and our assessment of what is being achieved in"br" similar activities, the paper gives a flavour of what makes infrastructure fit for automated driving in mixed-traffic"br" situations in urban areas. The paper presents an implementation and deployment approach to Intersection Safety"br" for the urban environment. It highlights constraints of urban installations and scenarios and proposes a solution.

Turnaround succeeded!

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:06:14 +0100

International audience; Some of the economic advanced European cities appear to have decoupled the correlation between economic growth a car ownership and car use. The research project CREATE funded by the European Commission is aimed at identifying the reasons and framework conditions for this turnaround by analyzing historic data of five European capital cities (Vienna, London, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin). Each of these cities implemented different strategies to achieve a more sustainable transport network influencing the mobility behavior, in particular, car use. The City of Vienna, for example, changed their transport policies from a more car-oriented transport masterplans in the past to a push-and-pull strategy by improving the public transport supply, mainly based on the extension of the underground network, and at the same time implementing pedestrian areas and parking restrictions in the city, which are still enlarged continuously. The mode share of car use (driver and passenger) decreases from 40 % early in the 1990’ies to 27 % in 2014. However, the ambiguous goal of the current city development plan is to reach a share of car use of 20 % in 2025. However, despite these core elements of transport policies a lot of supporting transport measures and other framework conditions need to be considered. This paper presents the analysis of cause and effects in the City of Vienna and a cross-comparison among all five European cities analyzed in the CREATE project.

Cybersecurity in Maritime Logistics

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:03:48 +0100

Major disturbances of large ports could lead to tremendous negative effects to maritime supply chains and the"br" whole economy. Beside physical threats, ports are also vulnerable to cyber attacks due to their dependency on"br" information and communications technology. Port Community Systems (PCSs) are information hubs for ports"br" integrating information from various sources for global supply chains, connecting systems of terminal operators,"br" carriers, freight forwarders and authorities. These systems are critical infrastructures – successful cyber attacks"br" can lead to significant transport disturbances and severe consequences for the whole economy. This paper"br" presents ongoing work within the research project PortSec, aiming at improved resilience of PCSs with respect"br" to cyber attacks.

Assessment of automated mini-bus operation in the Oku-Eigenji area in Japan

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:02:59 +0100

This paper reports about a case study conducted as part of the STAD project in regards to a demonstration with an automated vehicle in Japan. The demonstration was conducted in November 2017 in the Oku-Eigenji area (Japan). The ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) in collaboration with local government and local police authority organised and funded the demonstration. The goal of the demonstration was to introduce the people to the automated vehicle and to explore technical difficulties with the GPS signal in the mountainous area. Part of the route with low GPS signal was imbedded with MI sensor system magnetic markers. The MI sensor system proved to help the vehicle navigate in the area with low GPS signal. Surveys were conducted during the demonstration. In general the passengers are satisfied with the service the vehicle was providing and they would like to see permanent implementation of the vehicle in the near future.

Decision Support for Tactical Planning: A Use Case of the Infralert Project

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:02:46 +0100

The final objective of the INFRALERT system is to provide Infrastructure Managers/Owners and Maintenance"br" Operators/Contractors with intelligent software tools to support the decision-making process when planning maintenance"br" activities and interventions. We focus on the application of INFRALERT for tactical planning in the road"br" pilot in Portugal, where the maintenance department has to allocate major interventions over a 5-year time horizon."br" The tactical planning has to optimise simultaneously the maintenance intervention costs, the quality index"br" and the availability of the network. The allocation and selection of interventions in the tactical plan is based on the"br" maintenance alerts generated by the INFRALERT Alert Management toolkit, which is based on predicted future"br" conditions coming from the Asset Condition toolkit. The corresponding mathematical optimisation model which"br" reflects the uncertainty in the problem description has been developed as foundation for the decision support tool."br" The handling of uncertain information in the decision support tool is done by applying a scenario approach.

Self-driving shuttles as a complement to public transport – a characterization and classification

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:01:27 +0100

Sustainable transportation is a top priority challenge for many cities and urban regions. To reach that, an attractive public transport plays a key role. In this paper an analysis of how the technology of self-driving vehicles, and in particular shuttles for about 6-20 passengers, can complement and improve attractively in public transport. Self-driving shuttles provide a new component to public transport, as smaller vehicles can operate on a higher frequency to a cost of the same order of magnitude as conventional larger buses. Six types of applications of self-driving shuttles in public transport are identified: Feeder line, Truncation of high capacity line, Cross connections, Center line, On-demand feeder line, and Within-area service (line or on demand). The application types are exemplified by two potential cases in Stockholm, and implementation barriers and strategies are discussed. The classification, together with examples from on-going applications, suggests that SD shuttles can contribute to public transport already without being fully self-driving everywhere.

Compliance matrix model based on ship owners' operational needs

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:00:39 +0100

International audience; Automation, embedded software, stringent regulation and customer expectations have increased the complexity of ship design and requirements management. The requirements management approach described here brings two innovations with respect to existing tools used in the shipbuilding industry. First, requirements are assigned to operational scenarios rather than physical components to emphasize the focus on customer needs rather than subsystem optimization. Second, a tool based on a microservices architecture is introduced to manage scenario-centered " communities of interest " to which system architecture blocks and requirements subscribe depending on their involvement in the scenario. System architecture, operational scenarios, customer requirements are designed and managed in separate tools and the overall consistency of the design – reflected in the compliance matrix model-is preserved within each " community " they belong to. Collaborative ship design where partners provide diverse contributions to the design of a single vessel could benefit from such an approach.

Document type: Conference object

Effects of automated driving functions on the track availability of the Austrian motorway network

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:58:05 +0100

Road operators and traffic engineers always want to ensure a safe and uninterrupted traffic flow. It is expected that automation and digitization of road traffic will have a positive impact on traffic safety, traffic flow and traffic availability. To know more about the effects of automated driving on motorways, a research project was started by the Austrian motorway operator ASFINAG. In general, today’s traffic flow models are not designed for the simulation of automated driving behavior. Due to these missing driving functionalities, common traffic simulation tools cannot be used for evaluating the impact of automated driving on traffic flow and traffic performance. In this project, automated driving functionalities were developed for different levels of automation and implemented subsequently in microscopic traffic flow models. Different scenarios in terms of varying penetration rates of these levels of automation were simulated on typical motorway segments. The road capacity was estimated for all these scenarios and incorporated into the macroscopic transport model of the entire Austrian motorway network.

Big data for assessing travel behaviour in Europe: initiating a continental scale pilot for supporting the next generation of policy makers

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:57:37 +0100

This paper presents the latest developments of EU Commission Joint Research Centre platform TEMA (Transport tEchnology and Mobility Assessment). The platform relies on databases of vehicle driving patterns collected with navigation systems, and it is used since 2012 for supporting transport policy in the EU, exploring the effects of the deployment of electrified vehicles in terms of usability, energy requirements and infrastructural design. The results includes travel behaviour analyses of activity databases across fifteen countries in the EU in the provinces of: Modena and Firenze (IT), Amsterdam (NL), Brussels (BE), Luxembourg (LU), Paris (FR), Lisbon (PT), Krefeld (DE), Warsaw (PL), Bratislava (SK), Vienna (AT), Ljubljana (SI), Zagreb (HR), Budapest (HU), Sofia (BG), Athens (GR). The data accounts for 2.57 billion records, equivalent to approximately 139 million kilometres driven by 632,186 monitored vehicles. This work aims at being a first attempt for a continental scale pilot study of travel behaviour in the EU, showing the potential of big data to shape the next generation low-carbon transport policies.

Is stereo vision a suitable remote sensing approach for motorcycle safety? An analysis of LIDAR, RADAR, and machine vision technologies subjected to the dynamics of a tilting vehicle.

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:57:24 +0100

Tilting vehicles, such as electric bicycles, motorcycles, and scooters, are increasing in popularity as a means of personal transport. From a safety viewpoint, the development of Advanced Rider Assistance Systems (ARAS) for two-wheeled vehicles is lagging behind the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) of other road vehicles (e.g. autonomous emergency braking implemented for passenger cars and trucks). This study is the first analysis of three remote sensing technologies adopted by ADAS, such as RADAR, LIDAR and machine vision, but from a point of view significantly different to from that used in the car industry. Our findings motivated the development of a camera-based remote sensor by the reason of the lack of technology transfer from ADAS to ARAS, which can be explained by sensor design. These considerations limiting the application of the existing automotive remote sensors to tilting vehicles. We show how to tackle these limitations by introducing related experiments.

Adapting the German transport system to climate change and extreme weather events – First case study results connected to extreme precipitation

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:56:02 +0100

well developed, functional transport infrastructure that offers unrestricted use is of great importance for Germany as a transport nation in the centre of Europe. To address recent challenges like climate change and extreme weather events and to act towards a resilient transport system, knowledge and abilities available in German agencies are combined in a 'Network of Experts' under the umbrella of the German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. Thereby, the transfer of knowledge and technology across disciplines is promoted and the dialogue between experts in the areas of science, politics, administration and economy is fostered. This contribution introduces the structure of the network and presents first results connected to precipitation extremes. Using the case study of the December 2014 flood in Schleswig Holstein the performance of precipitation indices for the evaluation of flooding events is presented. Future increases in the frequency of heavy precipitation in winter are posing potential risks to land based infrastructures and may limit shipping. These results are confirmed by hydrological modelling, where an increasing number of days above a flood threshold and a decreasing number of days below a low-flow threshold are simulated for an ensemble of climate projections at the gauge of Kaub/Rhine. The analyses provide a first basis for the development of approaches to impact assessment for road, rail and waterway transport.

DICA-VE - Driving Information in a Connected & Autonomous Vehicle Environment: Impacts on Safety & Emissions

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:55:34 +0100

Integrating connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies with the existing road environment leads to important challenges. Their biggest potential is the improvement of the urban mobility, road safety, and reduction on energy use and emissions. Communications between vehicles offer relevant opportunities to reduce driving volatility, which are characterized by hard accelerations and decelerations, sudden movements (such as lane changes) and higher circulation speeds than the recommended for a certain area or road condition. This 36-month project main objective is to develop an integrated research focused on advanced algorithms to reduce driving behavior volatility through safety warnings and emissions reductions in a connected vehicle environment. A particular attention will be given to the interaction of motor vehicles (including autonomous vehicles) with vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists). The essence of assessing driving volatility aims the capture of the existence of strong accelerations and aggressive maneuvers. Alerts and warnings can enable calmer driving, reduce volatility and potentially improve road safety, traffic flow performance, fuel consumption and emissions. A fundamental understanding of instantaneous driving decisions, distinguishing normal from anomalous ones, is needed to develop a framework for optimizing road transportation impacts. Thus, the research questions are: 1) Which strategies are adopted by each driver when he/she performs short-term driving decisions and how can these intentions be mapped, in a certain road network? 2) How is driver's volatility affected by the proximity of other road users, namely pedestrians or cyclists? 3) How can driving volatility information be integrated into a platform to alert road users about potential dangers in the road environment and take control previously to the occurrence of crash situations? 4) How can anomalous driving variability be reduced in autonomous cars, in order to prevent road accidents and have a performance with a minimum degree of emissions? Finally, the specific deliverables of this project will be: 1) a complete and micro characterization of individual driver decision mechanisms; 2) a prototype of a driver warning and control assist mechanism to be applicable in connected or autonomous vehicles. The National Strategy for Intelligent Specialization vision for 2020 is based on key pillars, which are directly or indirectly addressed in the DICA-VE. Thus, it is considered that it is aligned with the following axes: "Transport mobility and Logistics: Secure and sustainable transport” and “Mobility and urban space"; "Automotive, Aeronautics and Space: Advanced Technologies Applied to the Automotive Sector"; and "Energy: Efficient Transport". Scholarship SFRH/BPD/100703/2014. published

Using an Automated Air Traffic Simulation Capability for a Parametric Study in Traffic Flow Management

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:54:31 +0100

Cooperative Automation Supporting Pilot-Dispatch Negotiation of Enroute Trajectory Change Requests

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:54:02 +0100

Parametric design and holistic optimisation of post-panamax containerships

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:52:30 +0100

The fluctuation of fuel price levels, along with the continuous endeavour of the shipping industry for economic growth and profits has led the shipbuilding industry to explore new designs for various types of merchant ships. Moreover, the introduction of new regulations by the IMO has added further constraints to the ship design process. In this respect, proper use of modern CAD/CAE systems extends the design space, while generating competitive designs in short lead time. This study deals with the parametric design and holistic optimisation of a post-panamax containership. The methodology includes a complete parametric model of a containership’s external and internal geometry, as well as the development and coding of all tools required for the determination of both the design constraints and the efficiency indicators, which are used for evaluating the parametrically generated designs. The second-generation intact stability criteria are taken into consideration in the optimisation process. The set-up multi-objective optimisation problem is solved by use of the genetic algorithms and clear Pareto fronts are generated.

Document type: Conference object

Incremental Deployment of Programmable Switches for Network-wide Heavy-hitter Detection

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:52:15 +0100

The advent of Software-Defined Networking with OpenFlow first, and subsequently the emergence of programmable data planes, has boosted lot of research around many networking aspects: monitoring, security, traffic engineering. In the context of network monitoring, most of the proposed solutions show the benefits of data plane programmability by simplifying the complexity of the network with a one big-switch abstraction. Only few papers look at network-wide solutions, but consider the network as non heterogeneous: only composed by programmable devices. In this paper, we argue that the primary challenge for a successful adoption of those solutions is the deployment problem: how to compose and monitor a network consisting of both legacy and programmable switches? We propose an approach for incrementally deploy programmable devices in an ISP network with the goal of monitoring as many distinct network flows as possible. While assessing the benefits of our solution, we realized that proposed network-wide monitoring algorithms might not be optimized for a partial deployment scenario. We then also developed a novel strategy capable of detecting network-wide heavy flows with the same accuracy of state-of-the-art solutions but by relying on less information from the data plane.

User-centric vision for mobility in 2030: Participatory evaluation of scenarios by the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA)

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:50:58 +0100

Mobility4EU is an EU-funded project that will deliver a vision for the European transport system in 2030 and an action plan with a roadmap to implement that vision. The entire process is organized within a structured participatory approach that engages a broad stakeholder community into the consultation processes. At the heart of this process lies the Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA) to assess the preferences of fourteen stakeholder groups across the whole transport and mobility spectrum with regards to four mobility scenarios for 2030. The outcome of the MAMCA is a visualisation of the ranking of these scenarios per stakeholder group, demonstrating what synergies we can build upon and what conflicts should be addressed during the last step of the consultation, a consensus building workshop. Here stakeholders come to a common vision for transport in 2030 based on the most supported scenarios. The aim of this paper is to present the methodology and the results of the evaluation of the four scenarios and highlight the synergies and conflicts between the various stakeholders.

Pipeline Defects Risk Assessment Using Machine Learning and Analytical Hierarchy Process

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:50:34 +0100

International audience; Pipelines are the most important way to transport large amounts of dangerous substances as oil and gas, through long distances, due to their advantages in terms of safety and low cost. However, failures and leaks in pipelines may happen and sometimes they generate catastrophic consequences. In this paper we propose an approach for the risk assessment of oil and gas pipeline defects leveraging machines learning algorithms and multi-criteria decision methods (MCDM), with the objective of accompanying decision-makers for prioritizing risk mitigation activities. The pipeline defects risk assessment approach proposed is based on some machines learning algorithms, which allows to cluster ILI (In Line Inspection) data performed by smart pigs in a group of clusters by using K-means method, then, two classifications methods (decision trees and neural network) are applied on clusters in order to construct a classification model of defects risk on pipe in three level (High, Medium and Low) according to theirs criticizes. The discovered models are assessed using cross validation, which allows choosing a model based on a decision tree as a pipeline defects risk classification and prediction model. For scheduling maintenance and reparation operations we apply the multi-criteria decision method AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) in order to rank-order defects which belong to the High class according to theirs criticizes degree.

A mixed-methods approach to derive vehicle concepts for urban mobility

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:49:24 +0100

The mobility behaviour of the urban population and the thereby potential shifts in demands create amended requirements for the current available and/or future-conceivable mobility possibilities. Furthermore, developments such as the increasing urbanisation, going along with growing mobility and land use requirements as well as climate protection are placing requirements on the design of future mobility concepts."br" At the same time, new transport technologies and vehicle concepts enable novel mobility options and in turn influence demand alongside these developments."br" In the context of this initial situation, the paper presents a systematic approach about how future, pioneering user-oriented vehicle concepts for urban mobility can be derived in conjunction with varied requirements and influencing factors.

ROGER: An On-Line Flight Efficiency Monitoring System Using ADS-B Data

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:47:39 +0100

Flight efficiency indicators reported monthly in the European area by the Performance Review Unit (PRU) help the air traffic management (ATM) community determine if excessive distances are being flown (compared with the ideal lengths of flight routes). Recent research, however, provides more indicators that comprehensively capture flight efficiencies in terms of other factors including fuel consumption, time adherence, and route charges. The efficacy of all of these indicators, however, is diminished as they are currently only available almost a month after flights take place. This is not sufficiently timely to use these indicators for the alleviation of unpredictable hotspots (i.e. sectors with congested air traffic), which often leads to unexpected ground delays. This paper proposes a methodology to calculate general flight efficiency indicators on-line in near real-time using nearest point search. A prototype system called ROGER (compRehensive On-line fliGht Efficiency monitoRing) is implemented using Apache Kafka and Spark. ROGER can digest large-scale heterogeneous datasets (i.e. mainly ADS-B data, the next generation aircraft surveillance technology) to compute indicators every 5 seconds. Our experiments on realistic datasets demonstrate that the proposed on-line indicator calculation method can achieve high accuracy compared with existing off-line approaches, and that ROGER can achieve desirable system performance in throughput and latency. A use case is also described showing how ROGER can assist in alleviating hotspots more effectively.

An On-line Monitoring and Flight Inspection System Based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Navigation Equipment

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:46:10 +0100

INGE – Intelligent street lighting for increased traffic safety with reduced costs

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:45:22 +0100

Intelligent systems are omnipresent in today’s traffic environment. Communication and control networks connect"br" different units like traffic signals or luminaries but are strictly separated from each other. Duplicated infrastructure"br" like traffic sensors are the result and highly separated control platforms. This work will present a solution on how"br" to loosely couple safety-related and safety-non-related networks to increase the database by providing sensor-data"br" also for other applications and open up a possibility to extend non-safety-related applications with the introduction"br" of (previously) not accessible sensor data from safety-related networks. A modular network structure for nonsafety-"br" related networks is described in detail in addition to parts of the overall management platform and how the"br" data of the safety-related subnetworks should be included seamlessly. Last a simulation approach is described on"br" how traffic at an intersection can be modeled to generate different scenario data for a later in detail energy"br" simulation. With the help of this simulation the approach will be evaluated and optimized.

Scenarios for Development, Test and Validation of Automated Vehicles

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:44:34 +0100

The ISO 26262 standard from 2016 represents the state of the art for a safety-guided development of safety-critical electric/electronic vehicle systems. These vehicle systems include advanced driver assistance systems and vehicle guidance systems. The development process proposed in the ISO 26262 standard is based upon multiple V-models, and defines activities and work products for each process step. In many of these process steps, scenario based approaches can be applied to achieve the defined work products for the development of automated driving functions. To accomplish the work products of different process steps, scenarios have to focus on various aspects like a human understandable notation or a description via time-space variables. This leads to contradictory requirements regarding the level of detail and way of notation for the representation of scenarios. In this paper, the authors present requirements for the representation of scenarios in different process steps defined by the ISO 26262 standard, propose a consistent terminology based on prior publications for the identified levels of abstraction, and demonstrate how scenarios can be systematically evolved along the phases of the development process outlined in the ISO 26262 standard.

Comment: Accepted at the 2018 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 7 pages, 5 figure

Modeling of Battery Electric Vehicles for Degradation Studies

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:44:23 +0100

The paper characterizes dynamics and modelling of a Lithium-ion battery. Theoretical formulation and literature review are combined to derive the necessary battery characterization. The three main dynamics for modeling the battery are: direct-current electrical equivalent circuit, state-ofcharge (SOC) and thermal dynamic. Furthermore, the capacity fade caused by degradation is considered as a fourth dynamic. Degradation is considered as the sum of calendar aging and cycling loss dynamics. The modeling procedure has general validity and can be used for different battery chemistries by changing specific parameters. The model is tailored for a 40 kWh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) Oxide battery, which is currently used in the Nissan LEAF 2018. Considering a user driving 45 km/day and the temperature of the years 2017 and 2018 in Denmark, the battery capacity fade is found to be between 2 and 5% of the battery capacity after two years of use."br/"Degradation is highly dependent on the average level of SOC during the years.

Aggressive Driving is a Major Cause of Traffic Accidents and Road Rage in Jordan

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:42:27 +0100

Motor vehicle accidents are a major cause of death among Jordanians. Roughly 700 people died last year in car accidents out of a total population of five million people. Many factors contribute to this. Some involve planning, design, construction, operation, surface condition, and policing of the roadways. The most deadly factor is human error. This includes unawareness of traffic rules and roadway condition; lack of driving skills; poor judgment; failure to interact and adjust to prevailing roadway conditions; and most importantly, aggressive driving. Preliminary findings of a survey questionnaire conducted in this study show that improper engineering design, inadequate traffic control, lack of traffic management, and traffic congestion are the main factors leading to aggressive driving and road rage on Jordan roadways. The study includes 200 questionnaires. The main objective of this study is to identify aggressive driving behaviors in Jordan and underline their effect on traffic safety. In addition, the study attempts to increase drivers' awareness of their actions on the roadway and point out the consequences associated with these actions. Many drivers justify their aggressive driving as temporary retaliatory measures to counteract other aggressive drivers, and therefore, this leads to road rage and traffic chaos. Aggressive driving behaviors such as pushing a car off the roadway, deliberate obstruction of passing vehicles, pursuing a vehicle, excessive high speed, and tailgating are considered at the top of the list according to the study findings. Most drivers admit that driving 20 km/hr above speed limit causes danger to pedestrians but not to other vehicles.

Development of greener and climate resilient roads

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:39:53 +0100

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events due to climate change and the significant increase of freight volume lead to a clear early road infrastructure deterioration. Likewise, the technical limitation of current materials and procedures result in high cost for road authorities and managers. DURABROADS, a FP7 funded project, aim at providing solutions for the development of more sustainable, cost-effective and more resilient pavements, able to withstand future climate and traffic loads. In order to do so, the research followed two different approaches. The first one was focused on the development of a carbon-nanomaterial enhanced bitumen and the further mechanical, environmental and economic assessment of different asphalt mixes incorporating the new bitumen. The second one was about the evaluation of future climate and traffic loads, their effect on current roads and the designing of more resilient asphalt pavements.

Numerical study of the effect of heat transfer on solid phase formation during decompression of CO2 in pipelines

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:39:37 +0100

CO"jats:sub"2"/jats:sub" solid phase formation accompanying rapid decompression of high-pressure CO"jats:sub"2"/jats:sub" pipelines may lead to blockage of the flow and safety valves, presenting significant hazard for safe operation of the high-pressure CO"jats:sub"2"/jats:sub" storage and transportation facilities. In this study, a homogeneous equilibrium flow model, accounting for conjugate heat transfer between the flow and the pipe wall, is applied to study the CO"jats:sub"2"/jats:sub" solid formation in a 50 mm internal diameter and 37 m long pipe for various initial thermodynamic states of CO"jats:sub"2"/jats:sub" fluid and wide range of discharge orifice diameters. The results show that the rate of CO"jats:sub"2"/jats:sub" solid formation in the pipe is limited by heat transfer at the pipe wall. The predicted amounts of solid CO"jats:sub"2"/jats:sub" are discussed in the context of venting of CO"jats:sub"2"/jats:sub" pipelines.

Document type: Article

Implementation of a real time capable, flexible and accurate Electric Vehicle model to holistically evaluate Charging Services and Methods

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:38:46 +0100

This contribution describes the implementation of a real time capable, flexible and accurate Electric Vehicle model to evaluate charging services and methods in large scale applications. Based on fully transient measurements of the charging process of electric vehicles a model building method has been developed and applied. This modelling approach bases on the parameterization of different phases of the charging process which then is fed into an electric vehicle charging behavior model which can be executed in real time."br" The proposed modelling method is described in detail and validated against real measurements and charging behavior showing that the taken approach provides a valuable and flexible model for the emulation and simulation of the charging process of electric vehicles.

The introduction of automated vehicles and its implications for society and the environment

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:38:32 +0100

The findings in this paper show the big potential contributions of automated cars to improvements of the"br" ecologic situation and social inclusion in the mobility market. These potential effects are however dependent on"br" the future use cases of this new technology and will only materialise if implemented as shared mobility. Based"br" on today's mobility behaviour, the number of vehicles will be reduced up to -80% if cars are shared, and up to"br" -90% if rides are shared as well. Analysing existing sharing initiatives, the implementation of shared automated"br" mobility can be seen ambivalently. On the one hand, a missing driver has some disadvantages as she/he plays an"br" important role if accompanying specific user groups such as the disabled, elderly or children. On the other hand,"br" the system would be much more efficient as cars are not sitting idle being parked at places not accessible to the"br" next client. In the absence of shared mobility models, there is a high risk of an increase of private car use as new"br" user groups are included, and as the convenience of traveling will increase in general through automated cars.

Analysis of Data Provided for the 2018 AIRBUS Air Traffic Control Challenge

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:37:42 +0100

https://www.irit.fr/recherches/SAMOVA/pagechallenge-airbus-atc-workshop.html; International audience

Strategies for introducing methanol as an alternative fuel for shipping

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:33:51 +0100

hough waterborne transport is an energy efficient means of transport, its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is growing and pollutant emissions are high relative to other forms of transport. Emission legislation on the other hand is catching up by introducing strongly reduced emission limits in the upcoming years, which leads to an urgent need for alternative ways of fueling waterborne transport. In the Horizon 2020 “LeanShips” project, the use of methanol as an alternative fuel for shipping is studied in one of its demonstrators. In the demonstrator, a high speed marine diesel engine is converted for methanol use. This paper discusses the rationale for methanol as an alternative fuel for marine transportation, different possible strategies for operating vessel engines on methanol, their pros and cons, and the approach taken within LeanShips, namely dual fuel operation with methanol port injection. The potential of methanol concerning energy efficiency and pollutant emissions is discussed, as well as other demonstration projects on methanol and next steps for methanol engine developments .

Using gamification for sustainable transport education: results from an empirical study

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:33:22 +0100

For a sustainable future, the shift to eco-friendly transport modes, such as railway and inland waterway transport, is necessary. One requirement is to create knowledge among decisions makers about these transport modes. Furthermore, the educational sector faces serious problems concerning students’ motivation. Gamification represents a new tool of active learning to increase students’ motivation and improve their learning results. The goal of this paper is to investigate the effects of gamification on knowledge, attitude, and behavioural intention to use with regard to sustainable transport education. Therefore, a longitudinal experiment with 384 logistics students was conducted comparing the results of gamified and non-gamified workshops which were done with future logistics & supply chain managers. Non-parametric statistical tests were used to test for significant effects. The results suggest that gamification is an effective measure to increase students’ knowledge as well as their intention to use sustainable transport. Concerning attitude, the findings show mixed results.

TM2.0 as an enabler of MaaS and its employment in MyCorridor

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:31:22 +0100

This paper addresses the convergence of two major trends in the transportation world, namely MaaS (“Mobility as a Service”) and TM2.0 (“cooperation between traffic managers and service providers”); the specific case study described is MyCorridor project."br" The paper claims that TM2.0 is an effective enabler of MaaS and vice versa, we demonstrate that MaaS world could become an enabler for TM2.0. This will be evaluated in MyCorridor EC-funded project. MyCorridor is approaching the MaaS concept by addressing those services that are connected to the vehicle world, with the primary aim to stimulate travellers to shift from private vehicle ownership to sharing economy concept (car sharing, bicycle sharing, public transport and para transit). It extends the TM2.0 concept by providing a solution that incorporates multi-modal, seamless, flexible, reliable, user-friendly, all inclusive, price-worthy and environmentally sustainable travel at cities, regions and cross-border.

Classification of traffic jams on alpine motorways

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:31:07 +0100

First, we briefly summarize the state of research in traffic congestion and existing approaches towards jam classification. We describe the assumptions of the adaptive smoothing method used for processing the empirical data. We present the results of our analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of traffic flow on the A12 and A13 motorways in Austria in 2016. Next, we discuss the outcomes for the A12 in detail and compare them with those from the A9 motorway in Germany to see if there are specific patterns due to specific conditions on alpine motorways. We postulate that the situation on the A12 is a result of local traffic overlapping with high seasonal tourist traffic waves, the density of bottlenecks and lack of alternative routes. We also describe technical and methodological problems that we have encountered during the work, particularly regarding the A13. Finally, we propose solutions to overcome these issues and give even more precise data about the exact reasons for each of the congestion types. We also outline our further research plans in this area.

Terminal Operation Software: A saturated market?

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:30:17 +0100

Big container terminals are using Terminal Operation Software (TOS) since many years to optimize their terminal traffic. Smaller container terminals are following at a much slower pace, while some terminal operators prefer to develop in-house solutions or use other forms of organization for the terminal operation. Some TOS suppliers are increasing the number of costumers and thus growing their market share. But how big is the market really? And do new companies with new TOS products even have a chance to participate in the market?"br" This research will give general information and latest developments about the current state of the TOS market and about terminals. In a next step, the concept about product lifecycles will be explained to discuss the term “market saturation”, before the size of the market will be evaluated. In the following, the offered volume within the market will be investigated to get to conclusions about the market saturation. The conclusions will be supported by demonstrations of changes in the actual number of TOS providers over the last years.

Going driverless: the legal consequences of making the human driver redundant

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:30:05 +0100

utomated driving is getting increasingly more attention. More and more cars are equipped with self-driving features and fully automated driving is getting closer to reality by the day. Trials with self-driving vehicles are currently taking place across the globe. However, before handing over control to the automated vehicle, there are challenges to overcome. These are not only technical challenges but also legal challenges. Although the driver becomes redundant from a technical perspective, from a legal perspective this is not the case. Laws will have to be adjusted to accommodate this new technology. This paper will give a short overview of the legal challenges ahead, especially the challenges regarding technical regulations, traffic laws and liability.

Improvement of the Aircraft Design process for Air Traffic Management evaluations

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:29:24 +0100

International audience; In the field of Aircraft Design, new transport concepts rely heavily on aero-propulsive effects with the objective of providing step changes in terms of energy consumption. Given the strong dependency of the level of lift with respect to engine settings, there is an added value for the designers to complete full simulations of the operational mission to verify the viability of the selected architecture. Regarding Air Traffic Management, the need for more accurate trajectories as well as solutions to characterize new aircraft in the air space has been identified. Taking the opportunity of these shared requirements, the authors present in this paper the coupling between a conceptual design sizing tool and an ATM simulator. The objective is to pave the way for future optimizations of the global system where aircraft would be designed taking into account real flight routes defined by ATM constraints. To validate the simulation model generated by the sizing code, resulting climb trajectories as well as initial cruise phases are compared with real flight traces recorded with an ADS-B antenna.

Study of brake wear particle emissions of a minivan on a chassis dynamometer

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:28:59 +0100

Car brakes appear to be a significant atmospheric pollutant source, with a contribution to total non-exhaust traffic-related PM10 emissions being estimated at approximately 55% in big cities and urban environments (Bukowiecki et al., 2009). Brake wear particle emissions of a minivan running on a chassis dynamometer were measured using a custom sampling system, positioned close to the braking system, under different initial speeds (30 km/h and 50 km/h), deceleration rates (0.5 m/s2, 1.5 m/s2, 2.5 m/s2), and ambient temperatures (0 °C, 15 °C and 25 °C). Braking from 50 km/h to full stop, results in 40–100% more particles compared to 30 km/h, depending on the deceleration rate. It was also found that only 9–50% of the total particles emitted, are released during the braking phase and therefore the most significant amount is released on the following acceleration phase. High brake pad temperature results in a bimodal distribution with the first peak being at 1 μm and the second falling at the nanometer scale at 200 nm. The ambient temperature appears to have a negligible effect on the particle generation.

Document type: Article

End-to-End latency in HAD applications using cloud technology

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:28:42 +0100

In the drive towards truly automated driving infrastructure data will play a substantial role, as it enhances the event horizon of the autonomous vehicle and enables the road operator to communicate strategic routing information. As infrastructure data is basically an aggregation of large data source systems, the guaranteed latency with which relevant information can be conveyed to the vehicle poses a challenge. This paper breaks up the downstream data chain from the infrastructure to the vehicle into its generic building blocks and focusses on the data throughput rate of the infrastructure database element. The achievable throughput rates are determined experimentally in a real life productive system during standard operation, the traffic information system of Austrian highway operator ASFINAG. The throughput rates through the main data gates have been made configurable and the timestamps for data passing through the individual software modules are recorded."br" Measurement results for the configuration with the highest throughput rate show a mean latency of 2 to 6 seconds for traffic messages from infrastructure into the vehicle, excluding the time for event detection. The concept will be expanded to eventually determine and monitor latency through all building blocks of the data chain.

Interactions between gas networks and microgrids through microturbines

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:27:55 +0100

By supplying thermal and electric energies to host facilities, microgrids with combined heat and power can enhance the resilience of urban energy systems. However, the increasing use of gas-fired distributed generations is pushing gas distribution networks to their operating limits, which may cause significant adverse impacts on microgrids. This paper investigates the interactions between gas networks and microgrids from the viewpoint of integrated energy systems. Four operating modes of microgrids are discussed to describe their connections with external energy networks. A novel model for gas-fired distributed generations, particularly microturbines, is first proposed to capture the interactions between gas networks and microgrids. An integrated system model is then developed to characterize the behaviors of the interrelated gas network and microgrids under different scenarios. Numerical results demonstrate that the variation of microturbine outputs may cause a large pressure drop of the gas network, especially during the transient process of gas flow adjustments. The results also reveal that microgrids can alter the operations among themselves through the accessed gas network.

URBANWISE: efficient urban deliveries by means of an IT platform

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:26:40 +0100

Large quantity of goods and services need to be available in urban areas, where numerous people get together."br" Urban freight transport, for commercial and domestic purposes, account for 20-30% of total traffic volume. All"br" people involved (authorities, companies, residents….) face challenging problems which at its best can be seen as"br" symptoms of a vibrant city: traffic congestion, negative environmental impact and high energy consumption. Up"br" to 40% of the total logistics costs can be attributed to the last mile of goods transport. It is high time to"br" implement smart solutions… like the IT-platform URBANWISE. In this paper we focus on one of the modules,"br" URBANWISE Construction.

Estimating the Charging Profile of Individual Charge Sessions of Electric Vehicles in The Netherlands

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:25:43 +0100

The mass adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) might raise pressure on the power system, especially during peak hours. Therefore, there is a need for delayed charging. However, to optimize the charging system, the progression of charging from an empty battery to a full battery of the EVs, based on real-world data, needs to be analyzed. Currently, many researchers view this charging profile as a static load and ignore the actual charging behavior during the charging session. However, this study investigates how different factors influence the charging profile of individual EVs based on real-world data of charging sessions in The Netherlands, and thereby enable optimization analysis of EV smart charging schemes.

Document type: Article

Empirical evaluation of predictive channel-aware transmission for resource efficient car-to-cloud communication

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:23:59 +0100

Nowadays vehicles are by default equipped with communication hardware. This enables new possibilities of connected services, like vehicles serving as highly mobile sensor platforms in the Internet of Things (IoT) context. Hereby, cars need to upload and transfer their data via a mobile communication network into the cloud for further evaluation. As wireless resources are limited and shared by all users, data transfers need to be conducted efficiently. Within the scope of this work three car-to-cloud data transmission algorithms Channel-Aware Transmission (CAT), predictive CAT (pCAT) and a periodic scheme are evaluated in an empirical setup. CAT leverages channel quality measurements to start data uploads preferably when the channel quality is good. CAT's extension pCAT uses past measurements in addition to estimate future channel conditions. For the empirical evaluation, a research vehicle was equipped with a measurement platform. On test drives along a reference route vehicle sensor data was collected and subsequently uploaded to a cloud server via a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

Bicycle accidents in Denmark – the contribution of cyclist behavior, the vehicle and the road

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:23:45 +0100

Knowledge on accidents and factors contributing to their occurrence is of key importance for the development of targeted preventive efforts. High levels of underreporting is a well-known challenge particularly for bicycle accidents. Medical records from 4205 cyclists from 2010-2015 were included in this study. The sample included all cyclists registered at the emergency room due to a bicycle accident during the study period. The purpose of the study was to improve knowledge on factors contributing to cyclist accidents based on a qualitative identification of accident factors and underlying factors. When identifying accident factors, we made a distinction between factors related to the condition and behaviour of the cyclist, the road and its surrounding, the bicycle and the other party. We identified 3124 accident factors most of which regarded the other party or the behaviour and condition of the cyclist. However, we also identified damaged roads and poor maintenance of the bicycle as important factors contributing to the occurrence of the bicycle accidents.

Document type: Conference object

HLTB design for high-speed multi-FPGA pipelines

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:20:54 +0100

This paper presents the design and implementation of a high-level test bench for high-speed multi-FPGA pipelines, to model and simulate architectures that gather and process large amounts of data. The test bench was successfully employed in a nuclear particle detector system, forming part of a large physics experiment. The design under test consists of three main stages. The first stage simulates the acquisition of the analog input data, providing designers with a means to verify correct operation with unlimited input variation, be it actual or generated data. The second stage, which contains multiple hierarchies of FPGAs, comprises the actual detector firmware design. The last stage is divided into two modules: data acquisition and triggering, which are based on non-synthesizable VHDL features. The simulated system has been verified against the provided technical documentation. Each module was individually tested; subsequently, integration testing of the entire pipeline was carried out to ascertain its physical correctness across design corners. The upfront costs in terms of time and resources required to set up the environment are outweighed by the benefits of having such a system, which range from the scalability, predictability and manageability of modular systems to overcome the associated limitations of high-speed synthesis and instrumentation. Hence, factoring high-level test benches in the design pipeline becomes not just an asset but an invaluable tool for the optimization, testing and verification of complex high-speed designs.

Passenger-centric airport management using real-time data and forecasting

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:20:41 +0100

Timely information about flights is already passed to passengers nowadays. A next step towards passenger- centric services will be to use real-time information about passenger movement and kinetic behaviour in airport terminals. We developed a forecasting system processing real-time data of passenger movements in the airport terminal. Our system is able to predict the future demand at touch points. Furthermore, it can be used to generate the expected passenger distribution heat map. The system also provides a real-time graphical interface helping an airport operator to oversee the situation at one glance. The real-time data are enriched with a model for the kinetic behaviour of each passenger. We use our forecasting system to simulate the case of baggage re-claim. The underlying geometry of the re-claim area originates from a large-sized European airport. The movement data of 250 passengers within the simulation are used to apply kinetic behaviour analysis. The information provided by our forecasting system can also be exploited to build a real-time Passenger Information System.

Future Communication Scenarios for Next-generation Railways: a technical and economic analysis by the MISTRAL project

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:20:12 +0100

Currently wireless communications services for railways are typically deployed on dedicated network infrastructures based on the legacy of 2G GSM-R technology. However, GSM-R is becoming quickly obsolete and network equipment manufacturers have committed to maintain such systems only until 2030. For these reasons, railways infrastructure managers are becoming increasingly concerned about GSM-R end-of-life and numerous international working groups are studying how to migrate existing railway services from GSM-R to a more modern, non-exclusive wireless communication technology. This paper presents early results of a study investigating techno-economic aspects of such a migration to next generation communication systems. Different future implementation scenarios of both Network as an Asset (NaaA) and Network as a Service (NaaS) paradigms are considered. The results are validated with stakeholders from the telecommunication and railway communities."br" The study is performed by the MISTRAL project, funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme under the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking Open Call “Technical specifications for a new Adaptable Communication system for all Railways”.

Assessment of High-Speed Weigh-In-Motion Systems by Road Testing for direct Enforcement

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:19:56 +0100

The ongoing National research project on direct enforcement by WIM, supported by the French Ministry of"br" Transports (DGITM) and carried out by IFSTTAR and Cerema, aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using"br" adapted and certified existing WIM systems for direct overload enforcement. This project involves the"br" participation of three volunteer WIM vendors. Trials have been carried out in lab and on the large pavement"br" testing facility of IFSTTAR in Nantes, followed by a on road long period test. Sorting algorithms will be"br" developed to identify the vehicles weighed within the required legal and metrological tolerances. The road test"br" intends to assess the accuracy and performances of the proposed WIM systems and to demonstrate the feasibility"br" of certifying and using them for direct enforcement. This paper reports the organization and results of this test"br" conducted on a concessionary motorway in eastern France. Very promising results are presented which pave the"br" way to the implementation of high speed WIM for direct enforcement."br" More than 20 days of measurements were carried out from October 2015 until autumn 2017. Rented test trucks"br" as well as the trucks from the traffic flow are used for this test. The rented test trucks are weighed carefully on"br" static scales and then make several repeated runs on the WIM systems at various speeds and lateral locations in"br" the traffic lane. Some trucks of the traffic flow are selected by the police, stopped for static weighing during"br" check periods, and the data are used to assess the accuracy of the WIM systems."br" Three WIM manufacturers provided full systems (sensors and electronics): Fareco (France), Kapsch TC"br" (Austria) and Sterela (France). Fareco installed piezo-ceramic strip sensors, while Kapsch and Sterela installed"br" piezo-quartz strip sensors. In addition, IFSTTAR-Cerema also installed additional piezo-quartz sensors. All"br" together, 15 piezo-electric WIM sensor lines are installed on the test site. 11 lines are made with piezo-quartz"br" sensors provided by Kistler, which may be used as a multiple sensor array or several sub-arrays. The test plan"br" and the accuracy assessment methodology are based on the European specifications of WIM COST323. The data"br" analysis is also carried out according to the OIML R134-1 recommendation, using the maximum permissible"br" errors (mpe). An important task is to identify the measures which fall within the tolerances accepted for direct"br" enforcement, i.e. ±5% for the gross vehicle weight, and above all for the fully loaded and overloaded trucks."br" Other measurements out of the tolerances may be eliminated based on criteria found by the systems."br" More than 70 static weightings are carried out every day of testing, which are used to assess the WIM data"br" provided by the 3 vendor’s systems. The first five measurement days in autumn 2015 were used to calibrate the"br" systems. Then 15 days of regular measurements were carried out in 2016 and 2017. More than 1000 weights"br" were measured during this period, showing promising results. The mean relative errors on gross weight are under"br" ±3% for the two best systems (Kapsch and Sterela).

Simultaneous short and long range surveillance of drones and aircrafts with DVB-T based Passive Radar

Scipedia content — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:19:43 +0100

In this paper, we consider the exploitation of a DVB-T based Passive Radar for simultaneous short and long range surveillance of drones and aircrafts, respectively. In detail, an airport terminal area surveillance application is considered and the effectiveness of the employed sensor is investigated with reference to the two search tasks to be accomplished simultaneously. For the purpose of our analysis, experimental data have been collected by means of the DVB-T based AULOS® passive sensor developed by Leonardo S.p.A against both a very small RCS drone and conventional air traffic. Then, an appropriate processing scheme is extensively applied against the collected datasets, based on the algorithmic solutions proposed by the research group at Sapienza University. The reported results preliminary demonstrate the capability of a DVB-T based Passive Radar of simultaneously detecting and localizing drones flying around the airport area as well as the typical civil aircrafts at longer distances.