ENSEMBLE Project, working on the specification of a generic solution
The ENSEMBLE – ENabling SafE Multi-Brand pLatooning for Europe –an initiative project co-funded by the European Commission, saw a further successful meeting recently to kick-start its work. The project, which started in June 2018 and will last three years, aims to ensure safe platooning when using different branded trucks and to carry out an impact assessment for infrastructure, road safety and traffic flow.
Significant advances in platooning technology have been made in the last decade, but to achieve the next step towards deployment of truck platooning, an integral multi-brand approach was required, now possible with the ENSEMBLE Project.
Platooning enables a single truck to form a platoon with any other truck. The adoption of this technology will improve fuel economy, CO2 emissions, traffic safety and efficiency throughout the road freight sector.
On the 11th and 12th of September 2018, ENSEMBLE organised a workshop at the CLEPA office in Brussels on the Specification of a generic solution, led by the Working Package 2.
More than 40 people representing all six European truck manufacturers, the major European Suppliers, research organisation and knowledge partners, discussed requirements and specification of a reference design that will be supported by impact assessments and acceptance criteria.
Starting from the current state of the art and the lessons learned from platooning demonstrators, common specification of the of the common solution for vehicle integration will be defined; this includes: scenarios, use cases, platooning levels and strategies, functionalities, functional safety evaluation, driver/user-vehicle-interaction and all the communication aspects among trucks and infrastructure.
This common reference solution will be taken up by the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and automotive suppliers for implementation on their own trucks during the second year of the project. This will be tested and validated on test tracks and international public roads. The technical results will be evaluated toward the initial requirements. Also, the impact on fuel consumption, drivers and other road users will be assessed.
The ambition of ENSEMBLE is also to produce pre-standards and prepare the path to standardisation, to speed up market pick-up and to enable the harmonisation of legal frameworks in European member states.
First conclusions of the common reference are expected by early-2019. The final ENSEMBLE demonstration is planned on public roads by mid-2021 implementing the multi-brand truck platooning function in real traffic conditions.
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In: Connectivity & Automation