Concept Development of a System for Pods and Pod-Carriers to be used as Moving Infrastructures mainly for Rail, but as well for Road and Ropeways

Livrables

Handling concept for a dedicated use case

This deliverable will provide:•The basic principle of a logistics system •A handling concept for the management of the vessels

Legislative and normative framework analysis

This deliverable will provide:•Consideration of the design definitions coming from the general overall specification in the WP2 •A review of laws and norms fitting with the design and potential operation is performed

Proposal for concept of architecture of a ropeway carrier

This deliverable will provide:·Concept proposal of the architecture·Visualisation of the rope carrier in CAD

Concept study for pod carrier, Basic 3D model

This deliverable will provide:·A basic 3D concept description (CAD) of the principles for the overall vessel carrier·Short Documentation about the vehicle packaging, energy harvesting and the vehicle structures, with the system relevant components

Description of use cases

This deliverable will provide:·A description of the use cases ·A documentation on use case model

Evaluation / Benchmark of available and conceptional multi-modal mobility systems

This deliverable will provide:·A technical evaluation of multi-modal transport systems ·Evaluation of the multi-modal mobility system from various perspectives, including user, technological, environmental, and economical perspective.

Proposition for an evolution of the existing safety framework and preliminary safety requirements

This deliverable will provide:•Investigation of potential risks and various design options are studied•Potential normative evolution is studied. Doing this, separated sets of safety requirements are provided

Report on a Generic Business Case Elements

This deliverable will provide:·Description of the relevant elements to be used for specific business case development

Selection of emerging ideas for further vessel carrier

This deliverable will provide:·Approaches and proposals of further vessel carries beside the considered·Visualisation of selected emerging carrier system as a rendering

Written report of the definition of multi-modal mobility systems

This deliverable will provide:•The results of the qualitative study including implications for the development of the multimodal mobility system, incl. general overall specification with description of needed technologies.

Concept Proposal (Components and Equipment)

This deliverable will provide:·A positioning concept of the technical equipment for the specified vessel·A CAD-Models with the relevant equipment positioned in the vessel’s envelope in interaction with the 3D-model of the mechanical design of the vessel·Analyses and comparison of different HVAC systems in the specific vessel·A determination of the most suitable system for HVAC considering the main components·Specification of the interface for the concrete sample vessel ·Description of a main interface concept inclusive a coupling concept·Definition of different types of sensing devices·A concept for the magnetic field aided vessel localization and identification·A concept for a short-range communication and ranging between vessel and moving infrastructure or other vessels

Estimation of economical effort

This deliverable will provide:·A report on the estimation of economical effort

Evaluation report on the technical concepts and operational procedures of the envisaged Pod system

A written report will be carried out, focusing on the following points:•Feasibility study of best technical operation case•Recommendations for the design and operation of pods

High-Level functional requirements specification

This deliverable will provide:•Functional requirements specification including a description of scope and system boundaries

Dissemination, communication, and exploitation plan

This deliverable will provide:Reporting about the planned activities related to dissemination, communication and exploitation

Concept Proposal (System)

This deliverable will provide:A Concept proposal of the dimensions of the pods A CAD-model of the pod principles which considers the main frame conditionsDefinition of the necessary interfaces between pod and carrier Concept proposal of the interfacesA concept for the operation systemDefinition of operational processes

Conceptual Design of a Selected Sample Vessel

This deliverable will provide:·3D-CAD model of the mechanical design at TRL3/4·Renderings of the interior and exterior of the vessel

Basic design concept proposal for vessel

This deliverable will provide:•The output will consist of a compilation of possible derivable design variants for passenger transport and goods transport with a description of the technical concept and a proposal for the structural components, a virtual model at TRL3.

Business Case Study for Selected use Cases

This deliverable will provide:·Description of the specific business cases under consideration of the passenger and freight transport

SWOT analysis

This deliverable will provide:·A short-written report on the SWOT analysis

Scaled model (1:11 or 1:22,5) of a road carrier application

This deliverable will provide:· A scaled model (1:11 or 1:22,5) to demonstrate the packaging concept, the architecture, and aspects of the drive train as well as the chassis and exterior concepts for road applications

Scaled model (1:11 or 1:22,5) of the vehicle concept for rail applications

This deliverable will provide:·A scaled model (1:11 or 1:22,5) to show a vessel carrier for rail, also including some aspects of the running gear and the powertrain concepts

Publications

Review on the modelling of modular POD-based passenger and goods transportation

Auteurs: Ivo M. Bruijl, Wilco Burghout, Niloofar Minbashi
Publié dans: European Transport Research Review, Numéro 18, 2026, ISSN 1866-8887
Éditeur: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
DOI: 10.1186/S12544-026-00832-2

System Readiness Assessment for Emerging Multimodal Mobility Systems Using a Hybrid Qualitative–Quantitative Framework

Auteurs: Fabiana Carrión, Gregorio Romero, Jose-Manuel Mira, Jesus Félez
Publié dans: Vehicles, Numéro 8, 2026, ISSN 2624-8921
Éditeur: MDPI AG
DOI: 10.3390/VEHICLES8020035

Integrated Control and Planning of Virtual Coupled Modular Pods for Energy-Efficient Railway Operation

Auteurs: Santiago Antunez, Miguel A. Vaquero-Serrano, Jesus Felez
Publié dans: Electronics, Numéro 15, 2026, ISSN 2079-9292
Éditeur: MDPI AG
DOI: 10.3390/ELECTRONICS15173841

Design and Simulation of Automated Pod Handling for Modular Rail-Based Transport Systems

Auteurs: Karel Ráž, Martin Stejskal, Weldu Subagadis Redakum
Publié dans: Logistics, Numéro 10, 2026, ISSN 2305-6290
Éditeur: MDPI AG
DOI: 10.3390/LOGISTICS10040087

Railway capacity analysis: impact of platooning under modular pods operations

Auteurs: Zheng Ning, Egidio Quaglietta, Mahnam Saeednia
Publié dans: International Journal of Rail Transportation, 2026, ISSN 2324-8378
Éditeur: Informa UK Limited
DOI: 10.1080/23248378.2026.2631501

A Distributed SDN-Enabled Communication Framework for the PODS4RAIL

Auteurs: Dingyang Liu, Dereje Mechal Molla, Léo Mendiboure and Marion Berbineau
Publié dans: SmartRaCon Scientific Seminar No. 7 (SRC7SS), 2025

Energy demand for air conditioning in rail-bound intermodal pod-systems

Auteurs: L. Brünner, S. Wieser, W. Struckl

Unlocking the Potentials of Modularity in Railways, a Heuristic Framework for Pods Scheduling

Auteurs: Ximeng Liao, Jihee Han, Aaron Paz Martinez, Mahnam Saeednia
Publié dans: "Scheduled for presentation during the Poster Session ""Railway systems and applications"" (ThBT13), Thursday, September 26, 2024, 14:30−16:30, Foyer", 2024
Éditeur: 2024 IEEE 27th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), September 24- 27, 2024, Edmonton, Canada

PODS4Rail: modulär kollektivtrafik och logistik

Auteurs: Bruijl, I. M.
Publié dans: Resultatkonferens Trafikverket, 2025

Unlocking the Potentials of Modularity in Railways, a Heuristic Framework for Pods Scheduling

Auteurs: Ximeng Liao, Jihee Han, Aaron Paz Martinez, Mahnam Saeednia
Publié dans: 2024 IEEE 27th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2025
Éditeur: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/ITSC58415.2024.10920015

Assessing Multimodal Mobility Systems for Benchmarking Rail-Bound Intermodal Pods in ERJU�s FA7-Projekt Pods4Rail

Auteurs: A. Paz Martinez, Y.K. Adams, S. N�gele, V. Laqua, D. Winkler
Publié dans: Civil-Comp Conferences, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance, Numéro 7, 2024
Éditeur: Civil-Comp Press
DOI: 10.4203/CCC.7.27.2

Concept approach of interfaces for supermodal Transport Units for innovative pod systems

Auteurs: Manuel Osebek, Nicolai Schmauder, Dirk Winkler, Walter Struckl
Publié dans: 2025

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