Auto­ma­ted Dri­ving and Charging

Auto­ma­ted cars will play a key role in future e‑mobility. While lar­ge-sca­le appli­ca­ti­on of the tech­no­lo­gy on public roads is more of a long-term plan, some manu­fac­tu­r­ers and ope­ra­tors are alre­a­dy test­ing it suc­cessful­ly on sel­ec­ted test tracks and in are­as with limi­t­ed public access/light traf­fic. Work Modu­le 2 sees two self-posi­tio­ning char­ging tech­no­lo­gies being demons­tra­ted at the EUREF cam­pus and the BLG Logi­stics pre­mi­ses with (semi-) auto­ma­ted vehic­les, in a bid to gain real-world insights into par­king and char­ging beha­viour. The modu­le also invol­ves deve­lo­ping con­cepts and tools for effi­ci­ent­ly desig­ning and using auto­ma­ted char­ging infra­struc­tu­re at pre­mi­ses and inte­gra­ting e‑vehicles into smart power grids. The aim of the auto­ma­ted char­ging infra­struc­tu­re is to increase con­ve­ni­ence, redu­ce staf­fing cos­ts and help ensu­re effi­ci­ent desig­ning, usa­ge and capa­ci­ty uti­li­sa­ti­on of char­ging infra­struc­tu­re in the public space and at depots. In this con­text, the real-life ope­ra­ti­on of an elec­tric logi­stics lor­ry will be used tog­e­ther with a ≥1 MW char­ging sta­ti­on, acting as a live demons­tra­ti­on. The char­ging pro­cess bet­ween the MW char­ging sta­ti­on and elec­tric lor­ry is auto­ma­ted by imple­men­ting a sui­ta­ble con­cept as a pro­to­ty­pe and test­ing this. Vehic­les with vary­ing degrees of auto­no­my will also be theo­re­ti­cal­ly inte­gra­ted into the exis­ting fac­to­ry traf­fic, and the enti­re sys­tem will be asses­sed in terms of eco­no­mic, envi­ron­men­tal and logi­stics KPIs.