Demo’s Automotive Week: the future of automated logistics

Demand for transportation will continue to increase in the coming years as a result of the world's growing population and prosperity. The Netherlands remains an important logistics hub, with strong growth projections for the transshipment of goods. At the same time, the Climate Agreement sets a major task to make logistics emission-free by 2050. Moreover, the transport world is facing enormous challenges in terms of personnel shortages. The Port of Rotterdam recently counted as many as 8,000 vacancies. There is an acute shortage of drivers nationwide, which is only expected to increase in the coming years. Despite all these challenges, traffic safety must actually be increased. The logistics sector must above all focus on working 'smarter'. Logistics parties together with OEMs and policy makers therefore face a complex task to make this sector smarter, cleaner and safer.

From research to innovation

It is expected that in the course of time, Connected Automated Transport (CAT) will make a significant contribution to societal challenges.

“In recent years, TNO has built up an extensive track record with connected automated vehicles,” says Joëlle van den Broek, Principal Consultant for Smart and Safe Mobility. “We have the technology available to ensure the safe introduction of self-driving vehicles, with the aim of their safe participation in traffic. Alongside the extensive research we are carrying out, we are also working very hard on the implementation side. Especially in the world of transport and logistics: here we expect that the application of automatic transport will deliver a sound value proposition.”

“We do this through a programmatic approach in the Living Lab CATALYST”, says Elisah van Kempen, researcher sustainable logistics TNO and PhD candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam. "To truly innovate, long-term collaborations with government, industry and knowledge institutions are necessary.  You ensure continuity by cooperating not on a project basis but rather on a program basis. Innovations can be brought in practice, with the right business or value case per party. TNO brings the parties together and orchestrates the innovation by researching whether and how CAT can contribute to efficient, clean and safe transport."

Open innovation and research centre MARQ

We demand ever more from our mobility and logistics systems. They must be safer, cleaner and more efficient. This requires advanced, integrated mobility solutions, in which everything is linked together and centred on digitalisation and automation. This will only be achieved with collaboration and innovation.

This is why TNO is working with the Province of North Brabant and the Municipality of Helmond to develop MARQ, a dynamic and open innovation centre for smart mobility. With MARQ, TNO is making its collective knowledge and its advanced test and research facilities and simulation models available in an easily accessible innovation and research hub. Its open nature encourages collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and resources.

Virtual and physical validation

MARQ offers partners the opportunity to test solutions in an optimally controlled way under ‘real life’ conditions, in which vehicles are seen in the context of their environment. Not just functionally, but specifically to test the impact on society. It uses data and scenarios from the real world to do this, combined with 'digital twins' and 'hardware in the loop' set-ups. This allows us to test and investigate many scenarios in a short time, even if they cannot yet be tested in practice. Moreover, the simulation environments in which we test ‘virtually’ are becoming ever more reliable as they are fed with real-world data.

Glimpse into the logistics future

With three different demos, TNO is already giving Automotive Week visitors a convincing glimpse into the logistics future. Jorn Gijsbers, Business Development Smart Vehicles: "On the Automotive Campus we are showing three very different practical demos of connected automated vehicles in the transport sector. With the MAGPIE demo, we will show how the complete ecosystem for these types of vehicles can be successfully implemented at container terminals in the port. in this demo, a truck drives a route fully autonomously, including curves and parking. With the CEYAS demo, we mainly want to demonstrate that yard automation can be cost-efficient, allowing various logistics parties to get started with it. By automating existing trailer movers, distribution centers will soon be able to manage their business with fewer drivers. Or deploy drivers in places where they add more value. Finally, with the FUSESS demo we show that automated driving applications are becoming safer and more efficient as the vehicle learns to make better decisions with AI."