Self-adjusting air deflectors for heavy trucks

Project Information

RMBLStrip

Grant agreement ID: 744838

DOI

10.3030/744838

Project closed

EC signature date 20 November 2016

Start date 1 December 2016

End date 31 May 2017

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

RMBLSTRIP AB
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RMBLStrip (Self-adjusting air deflectors for heavy trucks)

Reporting period: 2016-12-01 to 2017-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Governments, corporations as well as consumers greatly rely on on-demand deliveries. These on-demand services are the backbone of our modern economy and without it we
would likely suffer from far worse economic development within the European Union. One of the most important pieces in this complex logistics systems is the trucking industry. But this industry is also one of the worst polluters in the Union, emitting some 900 Million tonnes of CO2 equivalents annually.

To reduce the emissions, increased costs is likely a consequence for the hauler. But the hauler in the trucking industry is already financially pressed, with low profit margins despite high investments and many of them go out of business or turn to employment of unfit and unsafe drivers. So how could these actors manage higher costs?

The project shall conduct a feasibility study aimed at verifying the technical viability of a disruptive air deflector for heavy trucks, with the potential to save 3% of the consumed fuel. The 3% that the disruptive roof deflector can save correspond to approximately 27-30 million tonnes of CO2 [Eurostat] emitted from heavy transports around Europe.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Development of the logging solution, the "RMBL Logger". The logger was developed in-house and is based on Rasberry Pi. This logger is enabling for us to logg data from the electric actuators to extract the information in the signals that we need to identify the optimal position of the deflecto

Establishment of agreements with suppliers and customers: Letters of Intent has so far been agreed on and signed and a Pre-development agreement with a OEM Tier 1 supplier is under construction.

Two additional patent applications has been filed and a proper business plan has been developed.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

According to interviews and studies performed by both Scania and Volvo, 50-65% of all roof deflectors are misaligned with more than 10cm. According to these OEM’s instruction manuals for how to alignma roof deflector, only 4cm missalignment increases fuel consumption by 1%. 10cm increases it by 3%. A conclusion is therefore that there are several hundreds of thousands of heavy trucks driving around in Europe with roof deflectors misaligned to a degree that they overconsume fuel of 3% and thereby also emit unnecessarily large amount of CO2. The European trucking industry is estimated to emit 900 Million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. 3% then corresponds to 27 Million tonnes of CO2. RMBLStrip wants to save those 27 Million tonnes of CO2 with the AdaptivenRoof Deflector. But in addition, RMBLStrip wants to build runner up product thar has the potential to reduce current emissions by half!

RMBLStrip also won two startup contests during the project, Venture Cup and Serendipity Challenge.

Winning the Top Tech prize in Venture Cup