Truck Automation Study Underway by French Researchers
IVsource.net
6 December 2001

French national research labs are taking an in-depth look at the challenges and potential benefits of automated truck operations for optimizing freight movement and overall traffic flow.  The effort is led by LIVIC, with substantial involvement by INRIA.

French national research labs are taking an in-depth look at the challenges and potential benefits of automated truck operations for optimizing freight movement and overall traffic flow.

The 300,000 euro effort -- formally titled "Etude de Scénarios de Route Automatisée Poids Lourds" -- is being led by LIVIC (Laboratory for the Interaction between Vehicles, Infrastructure, and the Driver), with substantial involvement by the INRIA (National Institute for Research in Information and Automation).  Other partners include INRETS (National Institute for Research in Safety and Transport), ENPC (National School for Roads and Bridges), and motorway operator Cofiroute.

Interest in truck automation is driven by concerns over the growing numbers of commercial trucks on motorways, creating saturation conditions in some cases, as well as by environmental concerns regarding emissions.  The ongoing European CHAUFFEUR program has demonstrated truck automation (involving several trucks in convoy – see IVsource archives), and analyses have indicated that it is quite a feasible concept from a business perspective.  Improvements in both traffic flow and emissions have been demonstrated in simulation.

The project started in August 2001 and will be completed in 2002.

The French study has as its main objective the identification of deployment roadmaps for truck automation, taking into account as many technical, business, environmental, and societal issues as possible.  The program is divided into the following six themes:

Theme 1: Modeling and Assessment of Commercial Vehicle Routes

Modeling

Simulation modeling is establishing a dynamic model of routing, taking into account tolling, vehicle speeds, and safety.  The models incorporate vehicle kinematics and include both normal and degraded performance.  

Survey of Reliability

The two following aspects are being particularly examined:

1. Exploratory study of the safety of truck convoys. A functional analysis is being conducted to start the work.  The usual methods in railway system security (preliminary analysis of risks, fault tree analysis, etc.) are being used, focusing on both individual vehicles and the entire convoy.

2. The prediction of cooperative system breakdowns in truck convoys. The key aim is to achieve the ability to predict breakdowns in order to avoid collisions in convoys of trucks on the future automated freeway. The plans call for showing by simulation the feasibility of a system of diagnosis and prediction of likely  collisions of convoy trucks.

Theme 2 : Regulation

This theme focuses on developing algorithms to manage the road network and avoid saturation of any portion of the network.  Control simulations are being developed based on the various deployment roadmaps.  Demand is being forecasted on the major routes such as the Valley of the Rhone and the  Atlantic Passageway.  The simulation will be sufficiently detailed to encompass typical origin-destination patterns, and detailed mapping including entrances and exits will be used.

The study is addressing both manual and automated control, as various levels of driver assistance will be offered along the way to completely automated operation.  Also, mixtures of automated and manually-operated vehicles in the same traffic stream are being simulated.

Theme 3 : Examination of Goods Movement

Work in this module examines, for the present situation and for 2020, the major trucking routes along the Atlantic coast and the Rhone valley, in terms of goods movement / logistics and the impacts of truck automation.

A comprehensive quantitative assessment of logistics and goods movement activity along these routes is being  conducted, which includes geographical survey of origin-destinations, types of loads, types of vehicles, and delivery constraints.  Road traffic is being analyzed in terms of road/rail alternatives and also predicted demands in the 2020 timeframe.

Theme 4 : Driver Issues Regarding Automated Operation

This module is examining likely changes to transport businesses and the driving profession with the advent of automated trucks.

Through focus groups with transport businesses, impacts and needs are being assessed.  Topics include budget, needs for delivery regularity, concerns over breakdowns,  mode choices, and the speed of technology implementation. 

In discussions with drivers, the objective is to present scenarios of future automated truck operations and define their new roles (as handlers / supervisors of these vehicles).  Topics include timetables, remuneration, conditions of work in general, formation, seniority, level of qualification, and acceptance of new technology.

Theme 5 : Implementation Roadmaps

This work package is about how the automation will take shape physically.  For the key routes -- Spain to/from the Benelux and Spain to/from Germany – three approaches will be examined:

• a re-utilization of the present network accomplished by a better sharing of the time and the space,
• an additional lane coupled to the present network,
• unique lanes within a new network

Implementation roadmaps will be staged over time.

Beyond the physical implementation, stakeholder and societal issues need to be addressed.  The study aims to understand and accommodate key issues identified by these players, in order to develop roadmaps which are broadly acceptable.   Stakeholders are being surveyed regarding various stages of implementation to gather their reactions.  Strategies will be developed for handling obstacles which are foreseen.

Theme 6 : Assessment of Scripts

Here, the results of the other thematic areas will be assessed in terms of the implementation roadmaps.

This assessment will focus on modeling or goods movement and vehicle flow. Technical criteria (speed, capacity, safety) and non-technical criteria (social, economic, acceptability) will be applied.

Technical results will be expressed in terms of :

• level of traffic capacity reached
• level of goods capacity reached
• time
• levels of safety
• consequence on the traditional network
• levels of tariffs
• distribution between means of transport
• type of goods transported by the automated road

For a successful implementation, an economic balance and a financial balance must be achieved.  In the assessment, the economic assessment will use multiple criteria, and a cost-profit analysis will be conducted.

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For More Information ...

... contact Jean-Marc Blosseville of LIVIC at jean-marc.blosseville@inrets.fr. 

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