Fleet monitoring to make last-mile logistics more sustainable

Everyone knows that last-mile logistics negatively affects cities’ air quality. Its relevance in the total greenhouse gas emissions is driving logistics operators to electrify their fleets. Whereas in the past, the customers valued the speed of the service more highly, there is now a greater concern for sustainability and the environment when making an online purchase. In parallel, making urban logistics more sustainable requires the promotion of the public administration at this point, for economic reasons.

In the framework of EU Urbane project, CIDAUT is studying how much the air quality in Valladolid would improve if urban delivery services were electrified. As part of the study, a number of specialised prototype vehicles, designed and developed by IFEVS, will be put into circulation. As a special feature, these vehicles are partially powered by photovoltaic energy. Although the brand has several models, only the van and cargo bike will be put into circulation in Valladolid.

The study is focused on Boecillo Technological Park and the central area of Valladolid, which has unique characteristics. Specifically, these are an important historical centre, with a lot of distribution demand by hotels, restaurants and cafes, and a lot of pedestrians. CIDAUT has reached an agreement with the Spanish postal service so that they make deliveries of letters and parcels on the IFEVS vehicles.  Their routes are being monitored; both with the vehicles they normally use and soon with the prototype vehicles, in order to establish a comparative of how much the city’s air quality would improve if electric vehicles were used.

As mentioned above, this study is supported by EU Urbane project, funding from Horizon Europe under Grant Agreement nº 101069782.

CIDAUT uses artificial intelligence to monitor the use of last mile parking spaces

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.  

CIDAUT will be present in the second edition of SAHE, Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Show, in Valladolid

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 presents research and development projects’ results at SAHE

In the frame of SAHE, Hybrid and Electric Automotive Show, celebrated in Valladolid from the 22nd to the 24th of April, Cidaut has presented its last innovations related to sustainable mobility and intelligent transport.

At Cidaut’s booth, it was possible to see and touch two of the prototypes development in the last research and development projects carried out by the technological center. The first one was a crash test prototype that had been tested according to Regulation 94 homologation, in the frontal part of the vehicle the consequences of the crash were still visible. The rest of the vehicle has been repaired in order to shortly make an additional lateral pole crash test. Inside the vehicle, in the driving position, a crash test dummy was seated in order to make this testing tool familiar to the visitors. Most of the youngest assistants to the show were surprised and happy to see and touch the dummy while very few were surprised or scared.

The second prototype was a functional extra-light and safe urban electric vehicle. The interior of this prototype was monitored with a simple webcam and thanks to the application of artificial vision solutions, the vehicle was able to determine the position of the occupants, the direction of their glance, the number of flickers and yawns, and the alertness level of the driver. This solution will be applied to avoid unattended driving in automated driving scenarios, but also in standard driving conditions. The vehicle was open for the visitors to come in and test the performance of the monitoring systems. Again the youngest visitors were the ones who enjoyed the most the technological advances. Great to know the interest of youngest attendants in innovative solutions.

Cidaut participates in Green Deal Initiative through Probono Project

In our commitment to fight climate change, Cidaut is contributing to European Commission’s ambitious policies framed in Green Deal Initiative. The European Climate Pact is an EU-wide initiative inviting people, communities and organisations to participate in climate action and build greener Europe. This initiative is based on connecting and sharing knowledge, learning about climate change, and developing, implementing and scaling up solutions.  

In this frame, Cidaut, together with 46 partners, participates in Probono European project. The vision of Probono is to create a people-focused European construction industry that works with a community of stakeholders to create sustainable positive and zero-carbon emitting green buildings and neighbourhoods. The consortium consists of construction actors, public asset service mangers, municipalities, technology solutions providers and experts to transform six European districts into green buildings and neighbourhoods.

The six districts are located in Madrid, Dublin, Aarhus, Brussels, Porto and Prague, where living labs will be implemented to validate Probono’s innovations. The living labs will provide experimentation and innovation environment and will allow testing different solutions for sustainable buildings, circular economy, material up-grading and electromobility. These solutions will be implemented in the coming five years.

The project will provide strong examples of green buildings and neighbourhoods’ technological and social innovation implementation by focusing on building infrastructure and exploiting digitalisation and smart technologies. Probono will create green buildings and neighbourhoods Strategic Planning Tools and provide evidence-based policy recommendations, standardisation actions, and robust adoption and commercialisation strategies. Project work will engage citizens in co-designing and co-delivering sustainable GBNs.

Acknowledgment

The research leading to these results received funding from the European Union (EU) project PROBONO (GA #101037075)