Autonomous ground vehicles

Autonomous road vehicles enable the efficient transport of people and goods on motorways, roads and rails. Autonomous road vehicles can be buses, trucks, cars, vans, motorcycles or mobile homes. In recent years, this art of vehicles has received a lot of media and public attention and is referred to by many as the future of passenger or goods transport. Many well-known automobile manufacturers, but also lesser-known companies, are researching their own solutions in order to gain a head start in the field of autonomous mobility.

Advantages:

Efficient local public transport

The use of autonomous road vehicles in local public transport reduces the number of personnel required and enables more efficient, punctual and safe transport of people. Networking the individual vehicles enables better planning and communication in order to identify faults or problems in good time and counteract them. Profit savings and the coverage of the demand for public transport can thus be achieved.

Risk minimization

The highest number of road deaths is caused by human error such as alcohol consumption, lack of sleep, distraction, and failure to observe rest times. Autonomous vehicles are based on reliable and precise algorithms and sensors and thus offer the potential to eliminate human errors and their serious consequences.

Economical advantages

Communication between the individual autonomous road vehicles means that driving is anticipatory and efficient. Efficiency can be further increased if the vehicles use the strategy of platooning, i.e. organizing and driving in fleets, and thus contribute to reducing the air resistance to be overcome. This further reduces fuel consumption and prevents costly accidents.

Application scenarios:
• Local public transport (e.g. bus shuttle)
• Freight transport by autonomous trucks
• Car sharing
• Storage area
• Post delivery

Scientific challenge:
Autonomous road vehicles bring many advantages to different areas of our lives. In order to benefit from these advantages, there are a multitude of challenges that must be overcome in order to enable problem-free integration into road traffic. We are currently working on solutions to integrate the vehicle fleets into logistics processes and on automated loading and unloading of trucks. Research is being carried out on intelligent systems for data management and process integration. In addition, models must be created that represent the challenges in infrastructure and fleet organization in a fully digital logistics chain.
We are currently researching solutions for these challenges.