Coordinating and synchronising multimodal transport improving road, rail, water and air transport through increased automation and user involvement

Project Information

ORCHESTRA

Grant agreement ID: 953618

DOI

10.3030/953618

Project closed

EC signature date 26 March 2021

Start date 1 May 2021

End date 30 April 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 5 167 361,88

EU contribution

€ 4 998 798,75

Coordinated by

ITS NORGE-NORSK FORENING FOR MULTIMODALE INTELLIGENTE TRANSPORT SYSTEMER OG TJENESTER - ITS NORWAY
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ORCHESTRA (Coordinating and synchronising multimodal transport improving road, rail, water and air transport through increased automation and user involvement)

Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2024-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The problem addressed by ORCHESTRA is that traffic caused by transport has many negative effects. There are congestions, delays, emissions and negative impacts on urban environments, and in case of disruptions, there may be huge consequences on the efficiency and timeliness. These challenges are hard to handle due to lack of coordination between the different transport modes.

The ORCHESTRA project was based on the long-term vision of establishing a future where it will be easy to coordinate and synchronise traffic management of all modes to cope with diverse demands and situations. Towards this vision, the overall objective of the ORCHESTRA project was to provide European policy makers, public authorities, transport providers and citizens with new knowledge and technical and organisational solutions to enhance collaboration and synchronising of operations within and across transport modes.

The project has fulfilled its specific objectives, and has:

* Established a common understanding of multimodal traffic management concepts and solutions, within and across different modes, for various stakeholders and multiple contexts.

* Defined a Multimodal Traffic Management Ecosystem (MTME) where traffic managements in different modes and areas (rural and urban) are coordinated to contribute to a more balanced and resilient transport system, bridging current barriers and silos.

* Provided tools, models, and guidelines to support MTME realisation and deployments, including the integration of connected and automated vehicles and vessels (CAVs).

* Validated and calibrated MTME with regard to organisational issues, functionality, capability and usability.

* Mobilised relevant stakeholders to ensure uptake of project results.

Key results from the ORCHESTRA project includes:
* New knowledge on evolving needs, requirements, and feasibility.
* A white paper with roadmap providing recommendations to policy makers towards a more resilient transport system, supported by improved traffic management strategies and measures.
* A Polycentric Multimodal Architecture (PMA) which is a reference architecture for multimodal traffic management (MTM), providing specification on functionality and interactions between the different systems.
* Enabling and deployment toolkits to support the realisation of MTM.

Collectively, these innovation outcomes facilitate integration of existing and new transport modes into a multimodal network, covering both passengers and freight. This will reduce capacity bottlenecks and emissions. In addition, the project outcomes will improve safety and security, and reduce the cost of mobility for all.

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

In the project, new knowledge on evolving needs, requirements, and feasibility was established. This was done both through literature studies, interviews with experts, and by arranging semi-structured workshops. Through this work a shared vision of the 2030 and 2050 MTME was defined including analysis of the barriers, enablers, opportunities, acceptance, and social impact of MTM implementation.

With the shared vision of 2030 and 2050 a basis, a white paper was developed. This work was based on literature studies, review of legal documents, and semi-structured expert interviews. Based on these activities, gaps and barriers were identified and recommendations for an improved legal and regulatory framework has been documented, also taking into account the deployment of MTM in the context of increased automation.

To support the understanding of the MTM concept, and to specify the related functionality and how diverse systems in the MTME should interact, the project developed a Polycentric Multimodal Architecture (PMA). The PMA was developed following the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2022 standard for architecture descriptions, and is aligned with the architectural description framework ARCADE (using the modelling languages ArchiMate and UML along with textual descriptions). In addition to the PMA, the project developed a board game to support the communication and understanding of the MTM concepts.

The project has extensively utilised its two Living Labs (LLs), both to define realistic use cases and to test and evaluate systems and technologies in the real world. This has provided valuable knowledge on practical operations of relevance to the development of MTM. The real-world trials at the LLs were complemented with simulations to enable throughout evaluation of the benefits of MTM, also in in case of disruptions. The lessons learned from the pilots, simulation activities, and trials should be valuable for follow-up projects. The two LLs were:
* Herøya Industrial Park (HIP) - one of the biggest industrial parks in Norway
* Milan Malpensa airport is the second largest Italian intercontinental and international airport for passenger traffic and the first for cargo volumes

To support traffic orchestrators, network managers, fleet operators, transport service provider, and other stakeholders involved in MTM, the project has developed and validated an enabling toolkit. This enabling toolkit provides:
* Decision support and other prototypes for operative traffic orchestration.
* Training modules and training guidelines on operational multimodal traffic management.
* Assessment tools to support evaluations and analyses.

In addition to the enabling toolkit, ORCHESTRA's deployment toolkit further supports the roll-out of MTM. This covers organisational, business and market models for MTM, as well as the contractual and administrative implementation of MTM.

Towards the end of the project, 24 key exploitable results were identified and relevant target groups has been analysed.

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)

The ORCHESTRA project has made advancements beyond state-of-the-art in four main areas:

* The definition of a Multimodal Traffic Management Ecosystem (MTME). This MTME is facilitated by: 1) a Polycentric Multimodal Architecture (PMA) specifying how systems collaborate. 2) Flexible organisational and business models. 3) Simulation and training tools. 4) Policy and regulatory recommendations. 5) Data governance and sharing framework.

* Providing a description of how future traffic orchestration can support optimal traffic flows, considering both current and foreseen situations. This includes description of the needed data exchange to support traffic monitoring and decision support for increased resilience.

* Defined how coordination across modes and networks can bridge existing silos and thereby ensure best possible utilisation of transport system as a whole

* Defined new traffic management measures that supports more optimal multimodal transport services and more efficient fleet operations. This includes the integration of services provided by connected and automated vehicles/vessels (CAVs) and guided transport operations in accordance with pre-defined rules and trade-offs.

The project has evaluated the MTM concepts and related tools in the two Living Labs and through simulations. The scope covers both road, rail, water and air transport. The Italian Living lab is focusing on traffic orchestration for the mobility of people, while the Norwegian Living lab is focusing on traffic orchestration for freight. The Living labs will be supported by simulations to enhance evaluations.

Multimodal Traffic Management Ecosystem (MTME)