The F. CIDAUT participates together with 3 other technology centers (CTAG, ITENE, I2CAT) in the INTEGRA Network. This Network is financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the CDTI, thought the Cervera Technological Centers program (00140188CER-20211031)
Its creation constitutes a step towards the development of local autonomous transport, which tries to optimize the movements of passengers and goods, guaranteeing the safety of users and minimizing the environmental cost.
The INTEGRA network has just launched the “I Young Researcher Competition”, with the objective to find innovative technical solutions that contribute to achieving ultra-safe autonomous and connected driving in complex urban environments.
The competition is mainly aimed at University students around the world and University graduates who have finished their studies in the last 2 years.
The prize will be unique and will consist of the publication of a scientific article with the collaboration of the INTEGRA Network. The finalists, for their part, will receive a diploma accrediting their condition.
Those interested in participating in the Competition must fill out a participation application that will include the proposal or idea in accordance with the requirements established in the Competition rules document. For more information you could visit our LinkedIn: REDINTEGRA or visit our page web: www.cidaut.es
The ESTELLA consortium held its First General Assembly on the 7th and 8th of February in León (Spain). The aim of this meeting was to review the current status of all the tasks carried out during the project and to present the next steps.
The main objective of the ESTELLA project is to increase the sustainability of thermosetting epoxy composites by acting on the whole value chain of the materials, starting from the design stage through the introduction of CAN bonds in both fossil- and bio-based matrices and fibres. Ultimately this will enable their recycling, while redefining all manufacturing and recycling processes involved, ensuring the maximal recovery rate of its components, and strengthening the environmental and economical dimensions of thermosetting composites value chain.
In this first phase of the project, two main tasks are being carried out: the development of raw materials and the investigation of microorganisms capable of degrading the developed composite. On the one hand, raw material developers are engaged in polymer design and functionalisation and fibres in order to be able to start manufacturing the tailor-made biocomposites in the coming year. On the other hand, microorganism researchers are evaluating the different species that appear in cultures made from commercial epoxy resins.
CIDAUT continues to advance in the development of thermoset composite materials with improved recyclability properties that can be used in applications that require high performance materials (construction, aeronautics and automotive) in the framework of the European project r-LightBioCom, which has just been launched.
r-LightBioCom’s main objective is to reduce environmental impact of the new lightweight HPC, not only during their production but also during their operational life and after achieving their final lifetime (inherent recyclability properties), while providing improved mechanical properties, weight reduction and new functionalities.
This project, funded by the European Commission, is part of the Horizon Europe programme, one of the most competitive and prestigious calls for proposals at European level, which exclusively promotes projects with great excellence. It has a budget of 4.2 million euros and is made up of 15 multidisciplinary partners.
The consortium is coordinated by the Textile and Cosmetics Research and Innovation Centre (Aitex) and Cidaut leads and coordinates two important tasks. The first is dedicated to the processing of the new materials developed to obtain composites using novel and environmentally friendly technologies. The second is the analysis of the life cycle of the materials and processes that will allow validation of their environmental viability.
The project has already held its kick-off meeting in Alicante (Spain) on 30th and 31st January.
For CIDAUT it is great news that a new European R&D project has been awarded in one of the most competitive and highest level calls for proposals, Horizon Europe. This consolidates us as an international benchmark in the field of recycling complex plastic materials, such as fibre-reinforced composites, as well as in the development of more sustainable solutions. This is a very important line of work at a time when administrations, companies and society are demanding plastic materials with a lower environmental impact.
Last 17th February 2023 Bionanopolys project consortium performed a Virtual Open Day, where partners explained how to develop, test or upscale bionanomaterials in this open innovation test bed environment.
Our Open innovation test-bed has a lot of services to offer! With our 14 technical services (pilot plants) you will get the unique opportunity to accelerate your development of biobased bionanomaterials (https://www.bionanopolys.eu/pilot-plants/). And with our additional transversal and non-technical business services, our team will help you to pave your way to the market.
Let’s join forces and develop innovative bionanomaterials! and we would like to explain how to develop, test or upscale bionanomaterials in this open innovation test bed environment.
CIDAUT together with Valladolid City Council is implementing several measures to make the urban transport more intelligent and sustainable. Among the measures that included connectivity solutions and decarburization of mobility, the one that we want to introduce today is the monitoring of the vehicles using the charge and discharge parking slots especially devoted to last mile applications.
The solution to be applied is based on artificial intelligence technology. The parking space will be recorded, warranting the anonymization of users’ data, and the software developed by Cidaut will be able to distinguish between passenger cars, small vans, medium vans and trucks. The algorithm has been programmed to determine if the public space is used properly, but also to measure the average time of parking attending to the typology of vehicle. The aim is to optimize the use of the urban space to improve the last mile solutions offered to the citizens.
The innovative solution will allow to obtain valuable information to better understand the level of occupancy of this kind of public space and at the same time to provide useful information to the definition and location of this kind of parking slots attending to the city needs.
The research leading to these results is receiving funding from Horizon Europe under Grant Agreement 101069782 in the frame of URBANE Project.
On January 26, the General Assembly of the Spanish Hydrogen Technological Platform (PTe H2) took place.
During the assembly, the current situation of the hydrogen sector and its challenges and strengths were described. It was concluded that it is going through a great moment and represents a key economic growth opportunity for Spain.
Likewise, the coordinators and vice-coordinators of the Working Groups that make up the Platform presented the activities carried out during 2022 and the challenges and lines of action proposed for this year. José Ignacio Domínguez Carrero, as coordinator of the group for the uses of hydrogen in mobility and vice-coordinator of the group for the uses of hydrogen in industry, participated on behalf of CIDAUT.
In addition, during the event, the first corporate changes implemented were shown, such as the new logo and the creation of a LinkedIn group.
From 14th to 16th of April, the second edition of the Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Show will be held in Valladolid. The event will take place in Feria de Muestras de Valladolid, located at Avenida Ramón Pradera 3. Most of the most important car manufactures will be present with their latest electric and hybrid products and also mobility as a service solutions.
CIDAUT will show its latest research and development solutions for sustainable mobility and intelligent transport applications. Examples of artificial intelligence applied to last mile solutions, the presentation of an innovative electric bicycle with photovoltaic panels embedded, the role of hydrogen in the forthcoming mobility, the use of sustainable materials to reduce the weight of the vehicles and the integral safety solutions for the different levels of automated driving will be some of the technical improvements to touch and feel at CIDAUT’s booth.
CIDAUT, as an expert in the use of hydrogen and ammonia in propulsion systems, participates in the NEWBunker project, an initiative that aims to analyze the state of the art in marine propulsion systems with alternative fuels to conventional fuels, such as ammonia and hydrogen. The project will make it possible to identify the different supply modalities (bunkering) of these fuels depending on the storage system and the power generation system installed on board the ship.
NEWBunker is a project led by Gasnam with the technical management of Gas Natural Comercializadora (Naturgy group) and the participation of ESK, Fundación CIDAUT, TESICNOR, Siport21 and AEI-Basque Maritime Forum. This initiative has received a grant of aid for about 175,000 euros in the 2022 call for support for innovative business groups to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized companies.
Step by step automated driving is becoming present in our daily driving. Some years ago, some vehicles were able to maintain the selected speed or to inform us about our position in the lane, later they increased their intelligence braking when they found an obstacle in front or steering to stay in the center of the lane. Self-parking is nowadays a reality for some models, as it is the traffic-jam chauffeur. This upscaling of the vehicles’ skills is addressing us to growing levels of automation. Nowadays level 2 vehicles are a reality in the road and level 3 are starting to be sold, and together with the conditional and high automation level, the driver of the vehicle will be allowed to make different activities while the system controls the vehicle.
These activities will be linked to new positions in the vehicle, mainly it is foreseen that the seats will move backwards, the seatbacks will be more reclined and the steering wheel will be warded off in the cockpit. Attending to this new scenario, the conventional restrain systems will totally lose their performance. The seat belt, fixed to the B-pillar will be very far from the occupant shoulder, so it will be impossible to stop the chest in the event of a crash. Similarly, the steering wheel airbag will be away from the driver, so the pressure inside the bag will not be the suitable one when the body impacts the air-bag and the head will impact both the steering wheel and the cockpit.
To tackle these new scenarios, CIDAUT, together with three reference research and development centers, CTAG, ITENE and i2CAT, is developing new passive safety solutions in the frame of Integra project. The new solutions are related to the integration of the seat belt in the seat, in order to maintain the relative position between the occupant’s body and the restraint device, and also innovative solutions of smart airbags are involved with adaptive working parameters attending to the kind of impact and the position of the passengers inside the vehicle.
In parallel, and in order to inform the adaptive airbag solutions, CIDAUT is developing an innovative artificial vision devise based on a single camera to understand the occupants’ position and the main biomechanics characteristics. Additionally, the system integrates artificial intelligence algorithms that monitors the driver and are able to decide if it is in good condition to take over the control of the vehicle.
Acknowledgment
The work driving to these results is been performed in INTEGRA project, funded by and CDTI through Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in the frame of the funding for Excellence in Research Centers “Cervera”. CER – 2021 1031.
IFEVS is the Italian company designing smart electric urban vehicles with four main characteristics, affordability, all made in Europe, modularity and safety. The aim to obtain affordable solutions has addressed to the design of high strength steel tubular frames for different vehicle configurations. The technology is so flexible that can be applied to the frame of a bicycle and also to the frame of a van. For the last ten years, CIDAUT as specialist in crash worthiness, has established a strong collaboration with IFEVS to make these smart vehicles as safe as possible, being able to comply not only with the Regulation applicable to M1 vehicles but also with the more restrictive Euro NCAP protocols.
In TRA Lisbon, IFEVS presented the four wheels vehicle and also different configurations of the e-bike. In the case of the e-bikes the two and three wheels versions were available for testing. The vehicles received very good comments after testing mainly related to the high comfort, the easiness to ride and the progressivity of the electric boost.
Besides the positive feed-back of the tester, it is important to highlight that thanks to the modular design of the frame, its manufacturing cost is lower than the ones coming from Asian countries and also easy to manufacture in a low investment assembly line, with the competitive advantage that the design and the components are made in Europe, with innovative solutions for the energy storage system.
Acknowledgment
The research leading to these results received funding from the European Union (EU) project Avangard (GA #869986)
