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Content archived on 2024-06-18

Safe Road Trains for the Environment; developing strategies and technologies to allow vehicle platoons to operate on normal public highways with significant environmental, safety and comfort benefits

Objective

The project aims to encourage a step change in personal transport usage through the development of environmental road trains (platoons).
Systems will be developed that will facilitate the safe adoption of road trains on un-modified public highways with full interaction with non-platoon vehicles. These systems will be developed as prototype systems.
A scheme will be developed whereby a lead vehicle (initially a commercial truck) with a professional driver will take responsibility for a platoon. Following vehicles will enter a semi-autonomous control mode that allows the driver of the following vehicle to undertake other activities that would normally be prohibited for reasons of safety; for example, operate a phone.
The programme will address the 3 cornerstones of transportation issues, environment, safety and congestion while at the same time encouraging driver acceptance through the increased “driver comfort”.
The programme is addressing a concept that as a whole will facilitate a step change in the use of private transportation. The consideration of how platoons interact with other non-platoon users is a critical facet of the programme. This programme has a significant element of research that is looking into this aspect and this will provide clear strategies that will be implemented in the prototype system.
A further unique element of the programme is the interaction between the lead vehicle and the following vehicles and how this can lead to a new business model for road use. I.e. following vehicles may be charged to join a platoon.
The introduction of platooning on normal roads with private vehicles will achieve environmental benefits (with an estimated 20% emissions reduction), safety benefits (reduction of accidents caused by driver action) and a reduction on congestion (smoother traffic flow with potential consequential increase in throughput).

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

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FP7-SST-2008-RTD-1
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research project

Coordinator

RICARDO CONSULTING ENGINEERS LIMITED
EU contribution
€ 1 245 074,00
Address
BRIDGE WORKS
BN43 5FG Shoreham By Sea
United Kingdom

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Region
South East (England) Surrey, East and West Sussex West Sussex (South West)
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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Participants (7)

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