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KEYSTONE

KEYSTONE

Ongoing

Abstract

The overreaching goal of KEYSTONE is to support the development of a sustainable, efficient, and safe transport system, allowing enforcement authorities to access data for the purpose of checking compliance with rules applied in the transport of goods and passengers.

The aim is to tailor standardised digital solutions that can be used from several realities to standardize the transport system.

To demonstrate the validity of the solutions proposed, an app will be developed so that two highly diverse pilots can prove the efficiency of the KEYSTONE’s innovation. Using the gained experience to develop a seamless, interoperable, and intermodal digital transport ecosystem that can be replicated at European level, the KEYSTONE digital solutions consist of standardised APIs for data and information sharing between transport enforcement authorities and logistics operators.

The concept is based on a federated approach that allows:

  • to reduce the costs of logistics thanks to more efficient operations and interoperability;
  • to reduce the impact on the environment thanks to data sharing;
  • to consolidate flows and to improve safety thanks to seamless information exchange with enforcement authorities;
  • to foster the acceptance of the CCAM solutions (Cooperative Connected and Automated Mobility).

Role of AETHON

AETHON will contribute with its expertise in information technology and management information systems, as well as with its transport, logistics and transport data stadnardisation knowledge and expertise. AETHON will lead the development of an implementation framework for Plug & Play, by creating the API reference model and developing the API standard.

In addition, AETHON will contribute its knowledge and experience in data sharing in the logistics and transport sectors in order to contribute in determining business cases and ultimately affect the development of the API reference model.

Partners

Project Information

Duration: 1/6/2023 – 30/6/2026 (36 months)

Budget: €3,522,881.25

Smart Bus

Smart Bus

Ongoing

Abstract

The climate change as a global challenge for our planet fosters the international community to look for ways to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases. Urban areas try to make their ecological footprint smaller. Regarding urban transport planning the main priority is to reduce cities’ car- dependency and give priority to public transport. The purpose of this project is to create a web-based geographic information system (GIS), a “smart-bus” application product that could improve feeder bus service around regional train stations and make this service more reliable, quick, cheap and comfortable for its users. The aim of the product is to improve public transport effectiveness and create an attractive car use alternative. The new application will allow the adaptation of feeder buses to regional train operation, even in cases of delays, to eliminate waiting times of passengers when changing mode, from train to bus and vice versa. Another advantage for passengers with the new application is the adaptation of the bus routes to their needs. Between the given alternative routes, the bus through this application will be able to choose those which minimize the total travel time of its passengers taking also into account the walking time between the bus stop and their final destination. This service is expected to encourage the combined use of buses and regional trains with benefits to the economy and the environment. It shall be noted that such a product can have an impact in the world market. This service application will be developed by an academic institution, namely the National Technical University of Athens (School of Rural and Surveying Engineering), two private companies, AMCO and AETHON and one regional public bus operator, Korinthos KTEL. The University will focus on the characteristics of the new bus service and explore – through qualitative and quantitative social research methods- all the relevant attributes to increase the quality of the service. The two private companies will use the research results to develop the software and build marketing strategies in order to support the take-up of the new application. The bus operator will run the pilot project to test the new application. The pilot project will be implemented in the area of Korinthos in Peloponnese Region, in Greece. Two neighboring cities; Korinthos and Loutraki, which form a unified polycentric urban territory will be the testbed of the application. This area is served by a regional train, connecting Korinthos with the metropolitan area of Athens. The area presents several research advantages in terms of its current car-dependency and is ideal for showcasing the benefits of the application. The future creation of a new railway link to connect Korinthos and Loutraki will add new opportunities for the combined operation train – bus in a larger area. The new feeder bus service will offer a new reliable, cheap and fast combined transport solution for the regional train. It will bring new customers and generate higher revenue for Korinthos KTEL. The improved bus service will also foster economic activity in the area and will reduce environmental impact of transportation in Korinthos. The successful implementation of the new GIS software in the pilot area is expected to allow for its expansion in Greece and abroad and thus contribute to the global effort to increase the modal share of public transport.

Role of AETHON

AETHON will have an active role in the project due to its specialisation in developing and implementing innovative ideas and solutions for transport. AETHON will contribute to the analysis and design of the operating system and the development of the software.

Partners

Project Information

Duration: 17/6/2021 έως 16/12/2023 (30 μήνες)

Budget: €878,288.00

SYN+AIR

SYN+AIR

Completed

Abstract

Collaboration is a concept that carries heavy weight when discussing multimodal trips of passengers. For Transport Service Providers (TSPs), it is a method to facilitate a door-to-door (D2D) journey, which is a basic goal set out by the EU in the 2011 Transport White Paper. However, collaboration is a very generic concept that is hard to define. For SYN+AIR, collaboration among modes relates to data sharing among TSPs in the scope of facilitating a seamless D2D journey. The main objective of SYN+AIR is to generate common goals for TSPs that will justify data sharing, facilitating the user to execute a seamless D2D journey. SYN+AIR employs a partially participatory (in terms of validation) and partially, technology driven approach (in terms of defining data flow among TSPs) that is user-centric; customer journeys will be generated for the entire multimodal chain and SYN+AIR will analyse how those journeys can be facilitated through improved planning and operations activities (following the ATFCM phases: strategic, pre-tactical, tactical) powered by data sharing. For the analysis, air travelling is placed in the epicentre; all multimodal chains consider the usage of air travelling. Consequently, a “Smart Contracts Framework” will be generated based on a Business Process Model. Smart Contracts are agreements among TSPs that define data sharing criteria (scope, parties’ obligations, contract’s time span and fulfilment criteria). TSPs can use the agreements for structuring a collaboration scheme with another TSP either strategically or tactically. Data generated by Travel Companion apps will also be analysed in the context of enriching the Smart Contracts Framework allowing TSPs to improve their activities and execute informed decisions. Finally, SYN+AIR will determine what additional recommendations can be provided to travellers based on the execution of a Smart Contract.

AETHON is the initiator of the SYN+AIR project idea.

Role of AETHON

AETHON participates almost in all the technical works of SYN+AIR due to its specialization in transport planning and data analysis. AETHON’s main contribution will be in the Business Policy and in the Technology Exploration. AETHON will be the Work Package Leader of WP3, the Task leader of all the tasks of WP3 and will create the Smart Contracts Framework.

Partners

Project Information

Duration: 1/11/2020 to 1/12/2022 (25 months)

Budget: €997,250.00

Project link: N/A

Athena

Athena

Ongoing

Abstract

ATHENA is a garage project of AETHON aimed at reinventing the way we interact and communicate with our vehicle. In today’s non-automated vehicles, the interaction is simple, press the pedal – it accelerates, turn the wheel – it turns. But what happens in the vehicle of tomorrow, when automation gives your hands the opportunity to wander off and do something else besides grabbing the wheel?

It is simple, one might say, if something happens or I want the car to stop, I regain control simply by grabbing the wheel. That is true, it is possible, but there can be multiple unforeseen problems:

  • Drivers of automated vehicles regain control in a consistent and stabilized manor after around 40 sec (Merat et al., 2014)
  • Another study showed that drivers can take from 2 to more than 25 seconds to regain control, which is a significant time frame especially at high speed. Also, researchers noted that “Significantly longer control transition times were found between driving with and without secondary tasks” (Eriksson & Stanton, 2017)

 

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Automated cars are only starting to appear. In full automation we would not need to take control; vehicles got it covered for us. But then, what is the necessity for having a wheel? How will we communicate with the vehicle?

The Society for Automotive Engineers has developed a standard of 5 automation levels. Level 0 is no automation while level 5 is complete automation. This standard, also adopted by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, USA – https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicles-safety), states that at level 4 and level 5, driver intervention becomes optional. This means that drivers will cease to exist, no wheel or formal driving training will be required. However, interaction between the “passenger” and the vehicle, cannot cease to exist. We need to tell our car where to go and how to get there, make stops if necessary or if we wish to. We should not only be talking about smart and autonomous vehicles but also for informed and empowered operators that will replace the driver concept. Athena aims to empower those operators with voice control.

Athena Concept

Voice control will help us communicate “natural commands”, such as, make a stop after the blue car, and will help us maneuver under various conditions, translating our voice commands to vehicle movement and control. Athena is an AI that makes the translation: it receives the command from the driver and transmits it to the automated vehicle’s system. It does not blindly make a left when the driver requests it, but lets the vehicle know that the driver wants to make a left, leaving the car to decide when its safe. This is a new level of vehicle-machine interaction, a new Human-Machine Interface. It also learns about us as we speak, using Machine Learning and Natural Language Recognition for understanding and improving the commands. Most importantly though, Athena translates those commands to valid vehicle movement, understands complicated maneuvers and requests the vehicle to perform them ensuring that the driver does not become a passenger but an operator, empowering and reinventing the interface of future vehicles.

Short Demo

The automated vehicle is depicted with a red dot. At the end (right side) of the middle lane there is a segment of very low speed limit (~5km/h). “Human” vehicles (in green) choose to change lane to avoid the segment but the automated vehicle will not change lane without a human giving the command. The demo aims to show how Athena will operate in a simple yet relevant example.

* Simulation software provided by Technical University of Delft (http://homepage.tudelft.nl/05a3n/)
** Voice transcription (Speech-to-Text) is powered by Watson, IBM (https://www.ibm.com/watson/)
*** Automated vehicles’ movement: Longitudinal driving model by Papacharalampous et al. (2015)

MoveWise-Research (MW-R)

MoveWise-Research (MW-R)

Completed

Abstract

This proposal for the project MoveWise-Research (MW-R) is submitted for the call INNOSUP-02-2016 “SME Innovation Associate”. AETHON requests to hire a post-doctoral researcher with sufficient academic experience on transportation engineering, data analytics, behavioural analysis and IT programming for the purpose of performing a proof-of-concept research (TRL 5 – development of model/algorithm) on modelling tours incorporating user feedback. The key objective of the MW-R project is to develop a model/algorithm for planning of tours and trips in real time incorporating user preferences and data on traffic obtained from public (and open) sources. The model will be created by using data from public transport authorities in Greece and by performing a small scale survey to obtain user feedback on trips. By achieving the MW-R goal, the model will be able to change the perspective of travellers by providing targeted information about planned routes that will improve mode, route, time of departure and destination choice. AETHON aims to incorporate the model in a smartphone application and to gain knowledge on transportation behavioural analysis that can be used in multiple professional activities.

Role of AETHON

AETHON is the coordinator of the project.

Project Information

Duration: 29/9/2017 to 28/9/2018 (12 months)

Budget: €64,243.8

Project linkhttp://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/208828_en.html

Public Results

Questionnaire Survey Results: View pdf

You’ll find above the results of the first part of the questionnaire survey performed by AETHON during March 2018 (more information here: http://aethon.gr/en/questionnaire-mwr/).

Presentation of project results: View pdf

Yhttp://aethon.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/A-State-Space-Model-For-Assimilating-Passenger-And-Vehicle.pdfou’ll find above the presentation summarizing mathematical modeling activities in the MW-R project

Open Publication for the project: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10429

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 739607.

My TRAvel Companion (My-TRAC)

My TRAvel Companion (My-TRAC)

Completed

Abstract

My-TRAC project aims to deliver an innovative application for seamless transport and an ecosystem of models and algorithms for Public Transport – PT user choice simulation, data analytics and affective computing. My-TRAC stands out from other technologies due to three main reasons. First, My-TRAC fosters unprecedented involvement of users during, before and after a trip through a smart Human-Machine interface and numerous functionalities such as crowdsourcing, group recommendations, data exchange. Second, the application implements a vast array of technologies, such as affective computing, Artificial Intelligence and user choice simulation, that fuse expertise from multiple fields. Third, My-TRAC facilitates engagement of multiple stakeholders by seamlessly integrating services and creating connections between Rail operators, Mobility-as-a-Service and other PT providers.

My-TRAC application is a travel companion designed to operate similarly to a human companion; understanding traveller’s attributes and state-of-mind to derive conclusions from vague information as any human does. In addition, My-TRAC will be the traveller’s gateway to various services related to using PT, having Rail in the epicentre. My-TRAC application will also provide predictive information concerning disruptions and disturbances. It will not only display data but analyse them through innovative algorithms to provide improved recommendations.

My-TRAC also involves PT operators through the “operators’ interface” where they can retrieve and visualize aggregated data on users’ movements and state-of-mind that will assist in strategic and dynamic operations. Data that the operators retrieve are aggregated and anonymized while all models and algorithms are applied on the mobile device of the user, seamlessly integrating the “privacy-by-design” concept.

The consortium will test the idea in 4 pilot locations with the cooperation of local operators: NS (NL), ATTIKO Metro (GR), FGC (SP), Fertagus (PT).

AETHON is the initiator of the My-TRAC project idea.

Role of AETHON

AETHON is leading technical tasks related to user-centric technologies of the My-TRAC application. AETHON performs multiple tasks related to behavioural analytics of passengers and participates actively in the data collection processes (design and implementation of questionnaire survey, analysis of mobility patterns etc.). Furthermore, AETHON works on the development of the My-TRAC smartphone application and is leading the development of the “operator’s interface”. Finally, AETHON participates in pilot’s design and execution in 4 countries: Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

Partners

Project Information

Duration: 1/9/2017 to 31/8/2020 (36 months)

Budget: €3,494,476.25

Project linkhttp://www.my-trac.eu/ (Project website), http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/211972_en.html (Publication in CORDIS)

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