Ongoing Projects
fASt and Smart charging solutions for full size URban hEavy Duty applications
About | ASSURED is aimed at boosting the electrification of urban commercial vehicles and their integration with high power fast charging infrastructure, evaluating several infrastructures in different cities across Europe.
The project started in October 2017 with the aim of developing and testing high-power solutions for full-size, urban, heavy-duty applications. The fundamental aim is that each of these solutions will be able to charge various types of vehicles, and are designed to supply energy for a whole fleet of buses.
Using innovative charging management strategies will contribute to reducing noise and air pollution, as well as the total cost of ownership and operational costs. Another element which will be improved is the grid stability to ensure a secure energy supply, essential for future uses when a larger number of vehicles will rely on the charging infrastructure.
To achieve this, ASSURED will test six public transport buses, three trucks and one light commercial lightweight delivery vehicle (wireless charging solution) with automatic fast charging. The charging solutions tested by ASSURED will include different types of pantographs, plug-in and wireless charging.
The goal is to charge different vehicles using the same infrastructure, which is what makes ASSURED so innovative: this will be the first time a project sets out to test the interoperability of the charging solutions applied. If successful, this will help reduce costs and support the standardisation of the elements of the infrastructure.
ICCS contribution | Given its valuable expertise in electro-mobility and being the coordinator of FABRIC FP7 project on dynamic wireless charging of passenger vehicles, ICCS is the co-leader of WP7 on use cases and co-responsible for the case on lighter duty vehicles. Moreover, ICCS contributes to ASSURED’s dissemination activities.
For more information about the project, its assets and developments, you could visit its official website https://assured-project.eu/ and subscribe to its newsletter.
Automated Road Transport (ART) is a major technological advancements that will influence and shape our future mobility and quality of life. ART encompasses passenger cars, public transport vehicles, and urban and interurban freight transport and also extends to the road, IT and telecommunication infrastructure needed to guarantee the safe and efficient operations of the vehicles.
In this framework, CARTRE is accelerating the development and deployment of ART by increasing market and policy certainties. CARTRE, which stands for “Coordination of Automated Road Transport Deployment for Europe” is a CSA EU project, is funded by EU H2020 programme and consists of 36 partners and a number of associate partners, aiming to support the development of clearer and more consistent policies of EU Member States in collaboration with industry players, ensuring that ART systems and services are compatible on a EU level and are deployed in a coherent way across Europe.
CARTRE includes a joint stakeholder’s forum in order to coordinate and harmonise ART approaches at European and international level. CARTRE creates a solid knowledge base of all European activities, supports current activities and structures research outcomes by enablers and thematic areas and involves more than 60 organisations to consolidate the current industry and policy fragmentation surrounding the development of ART.
Within this project ICCS will focus on the connectivity of automated road transport, on ergonomics issues of relevant technologies and developments and on the respective future research needs. Moreover, ICCS will work on the mid- and long-term visions of automated road transport systems and on the guidance on national testing regulations of such systems. Finally, ICCS will contribute on the trilateral cooperation among EU-US-Japan, mainly related to connectivity and impact assessment from the ART introduction in traffic.
A circular economy approach for lifecycles of products and services
CIRC4Life is an H2020 European project, wunning from May 2018 to April 2021 and consisted of 17 partners from 8 European Countries. The project is aiming to demonstrate a systemic and eco-innovative circular economy approach for sustainable products and services through their lifecycles. This includes:
- Three new circular economy business models: co-creation of products and services, sustainable consumption and collaborative recycling and reuse, which are to be demonstrated in two industrial sectors, electrical and electronic products and farming/agri-foods;
- Effective means to communicate with wider communities to disseminate the project outcomes;
- An ICT platform to support project development, demonstration, dissemination and communication.
These three new CEBMs of ‘Co-creation of Products/Services’, ‘Sustainable Consumption’ and ‘Collaborative recycle/Reuse’ will be developed and demonstrated in electrical and electronic products and farm/argri-food sectors. In EEE sector, two types of LED lighting products are considered: industrial lighting in workshops, stores and other industrial environment; domestic and contract lighting products used by householders, hotels, offices, etc.; in addition, computer tablets are also considered. These sectors are selected as (i) they are essential and important to our daily life with significant impact on sustainability, as further presented in and (ii) the demonstrations in the two different industrial sectors will illustrate that the new CEBMs are generally applicable for different areas.
ICCS is the CIRC4Life quality manager, responsible to implement quality processes which ensure that CIRC4Life delivers its outputs to the highest quality standards. It is also leading the implementation, development and test of the to be created ICT platform as well as for the interfaces integration with the ICT platform. Finally, ICCS will also contribute to the whole project consortium effort towards the best exploitation and dissemination of the project results.
Open network of hyper connected logistics clusters towards Physical Internet
“If we want to reach the EU objective on modal shift for all transportation beyond 300 km and attract and strengthen competitiveness of local industries at the same time, we need to drive the development of a network of hyper connected logistics multimodal clusters and their influence areas”. Clusters 2.0 Consortium
Clusters 2.0. is an H2020 project running from May 2017 to April 2020 and deployed by a consortium of 29 partners. The consortium's vision is to leverage the full potential of European Logistics Clusters for an efficient and fully integrated transport system in Europe making optimal use of an Open Network of Logistics Clusters and hubs starting with Zaragoza (PLAZA), Duisburg (Duisport), Lille (Dourges), Bologna-Trieste (Interporto/port of Trieste), Brussels (BruCargo), London (Heathrow), Piraeus (PCT), Trelleborg (Port), while keeping neutral the environmental and local impacts such as congestion, noise, land use and local pollution levels.
Cluster 2.0 objectives and areas of intervention are the following:
- Increase the engagement, performance and coordination of terminals and hubs at cluster level targeting: i) increase by 50% the freight managed in the cluster whit current infrastructure, ii) Double the value added activities and iii)increase economic impact in local economies by 5% yearly while keeping neutral local environmental impacts.
- Build a hyper connected network of logistics hubs and clusters targeting: i) increase average door-to-door vehicle load factor up to 75%, ii) increase intermodal transport in the network by 40%. Develop low cost, low capital and investment intensive transhipment enhanced solutions to reduce operational costs of transhipment by 30 %. Develop prototypes of New Modular Load Units as enhancers of the above objectives.Develop terminal management systems to increase management capacity of the terminals by 20% and reduce associated congestion by 10%. Establish and run 5 Living Labs (LLs) to test, improve an validate proposed solutions as well as to and Develop Business Models and Robust Business Plans for Clusters 2.0 solutions.
The I-SENSE Group of ICCS is participating at the Clusters 2.0 project as a member of the Greek Cluster, and in particular as a sub-contractor of the Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT) SA with main responsibility the integration of proprietary ICT systems with Nallian platform.
Learn more at: http://clusters20.enide.eu
Connected Corridor for Driving Automation
CONCORDA is a 33-month project, estimated at 20 million euro, with a timeline from 1 October 2017 until 30 June 2020, which is expected to contribute to the preparation of the European motorways for automated driving and high density truck platooning with adequate connected services and technologies. The project consortium includes 26 international partners from 5 EU Member States and is funded under a Grant Agreement from CEF (Connected Europe Facility) and INEA (Innovation and Networks Executive Agency), under the powers delegated by the European Commission. The main scope of this Action is to assess performances (reliability/availability) of hybrid communication systems, combining 802.11p and LTE connectivity, under real traffic situations.
To achieve its scope CONCORDA is organised in 6 main activities, with 34 milestones. The specific Action objectives are the following:
- Assess the performance of hybrid communication systems in terms of reliability and availability;
- Improve localisation services;
- Contribute to a new standard of evaluation of the existing standards such as ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and C-ITS (Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems);
- Contribute to interoperability and continuity of services: the specifications (new or evolved standards) will be applied on all test sites according to the C-ITS Platform recommendations in order to guarantee the interoperability and continuity of services piloted in the CONCORDA project aiming at EU-wide interoperability of services;
- Cooperation with the European Commission, C-ROADS (a joint initiative of European Member States and road operators for testing and implementing C-ITS services in light of cross-border harmonisation and interoperability), SENSORIS (Sensor Ingestion Integration Specification), EATA (European Automotive Telecom Alliance), CEDR (Conference of European Directors of Roads), 5GAA (5G Automotive Alliance – 5th generation mobile networks) and NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Network).
In particular, CONCORDA will respect all C-ITS services deployed within the C-Roads initiative and will ensure that newly deployed C-ITS services or C-ITS services using new communication systems (e.g. LTE-V2X) and will not affect existing services in terms of interferences and interoperability, will contribute to the preparation of the European motorways for automated driving and high density truck platooning with adequate connected services and technologies.
ICCS is the Activity 4 - pilot evaluation – leader, responsible for the definition of a Common Evaluation Framework (in cooperation with Activity 1) the evaluation of the technical performance of technologies and solutions implemented in the pilot sites, the impact on Automated Driving Function (ADF) performance and the interoperability across sites. It is also responsible for the assessment activities related to the acceptance of new technologies and the creation of business impacts for stakeholders.
Capacity with a positive environmental and societal footprint: ports in the future era
COREALIS is an H2020 European project representing a strong consortium of research institutes, port operators, port authorities and leading transport, logistics and information technology stakeholders in Europe and associated countries. With the participation of 17 partners from 9 countries, COREALIS aims to maximise the capacity and improve the operational efficiency of future ports as well as support them in medium-term and long-term decision-making.
The COREALIS consortium has the following principal objectives:
- § Embrace circular economy models in the port strategy and operations.
- § Reduce the port’s total environmental footprint associated with intermodal connections and the surrounding urban environment for three major transport modes, road/truck, rail and inland waterways.
- § Improve operational efficiency, optimise yard capacity and streamline cargo flows without additional infrastructural investments.
- § Enable the port to take informed medium-term and long-term strategic decisions and become an innovation hub of the local urban space.
In order to achieve these goals, COREALIS proposes a sustainable, strategic framework including a set of innovative technological components for optimising intra-terminal operations, creating efficient connections with the hinterland transport network as well as enhancing decision-making. These innovations are supported by disruptive technologies, including Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, next generation traffic management and emerging 5G networks.
The innovations will be implemented and tested in real operating conditions in 5 Living Lab environments, associated with the 5 European ports, Valencia, Piraeus, Antwerp, Livorno and Haminakotka Living Labs. A stakeholder driven approach will be followed, considering the ports’ and port-cities’ main challenges. The proposed methodology will be implemented in three distinctive yet complementary phases including i) a Scenarios and Requirements Phase, ii) a Technical Design and Development Phase, and iii) a LL full-scale implementation and Impact Assessment Phase.
The proposed framework is expected to improve significantly the terminal operations efficiency and decrease operational costs. In addition, it aims to minimise the environmental footprint by reducing congestion around the ports and CO2 emissions of ports to the city. Finally, the proposed framework fosters sustainable growth for ports by decreasing the disturbance to local communities while at the same time establishing efficient connections with the hinterland transport network and green-transport modes.
ICCS is the COREALIS project coordinator, responsible for all operational and administrative coordination tasks and the project quality manager, responsible for crafting and maintaining a Project Quality Manual.. ICCS is also leading the implementation of the five COREALIS Living Labs and coordination of their execution, whilst also contributing to the following activities: lead T1.3 on the COREALIS User Stories and Scenarios which will be implemented in the Living Labs, lead T5.1 towards the COREALIS Living Labs Plan and Coordination and also lead T.6.1 aiming to define the evaluation methodology as well as collect, consolidate and document the metrics and Key Performance Indicators to evaluate the proposed innovations. In addition, ICCS will lead activities regarding the COREALIS Societal Impact Assessment within the port-city context (T6.4), T9.1 on the Administration and Financial Coordination and T9.3 on the Quality and Risk Management. ICCS shall also contribute to the Technical Management activities of T9.2.
Demonstrate Ecosystem Services Enabling Innovation in the Water Sector
Water scarcity and water quality are important issues in urban areas across Europe and beyond. New technology or management approaches to tackle these issues are needed. Those approaches are more likely to turn into real innovations that are actually implemented and taken up by the market if there is evidence of their benefits or added value in economic, environmental and societal terms. Therefore, a method to prove the value of new solutions is needed too. DESSIN demonstrates and promotes innovative solutions for water scarcity and water quality / the implementation of the Water Framework directive (WFD) and shows the value of those solutions for the water sector and society by also demonstrating a methodology for the valuation of ecosystem services (ESS) as catalyser for innovation. By this twofold approach, DESSIN will be able to demonstrate how innovative solutions in the water cycle can increase the value of the services provided by freshwater ecosystems, enabling a more informed selection of the most promising solutions in regards to their impact on the water body and their economic implications.
I-SENSE role in DESSIN entails the development ofwer-mining software and hardware platform for the demonstration site in Athens. The platform will orchestrate, process and visualize the data recorded and measured by the field sensors and provide support for the application decision systems. I-SENSE will develop an integrated communication solution based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement protocols which will link local events to the operations centre.
Project website: http://dessin-project.eu/
Electrified L-category Vehicles Integrated into Transport and Electricity Networks
ELVITEN is an H2020 European project consisted of 21 partners from 9 European Countries that aims to boost the usage of all categories of light electric vehicles (EL-Vs), including bicycles, scooters, tricycles and quadricycles, in urban environment and ultimately to achieve a mind-shift among users by providing them with a better EL-V experience.
The ELVITEN consortium has the following principal objectives:
- First, it seeks to make users more familiar and facilitate them to use EL-Vs instead of ICE vehicles for their private transport and for light urban deliveries.
- Second, it attempts to collect rich information sets made of real usage data, traces from dedicated ICT tools, and usersʼ opinions after real trips.
- Third it will generate detailed guidelines and business models for service providers, Planning Authorities and manufacturers in order to make EL-Vs more attractive and more integrated in the transport and electricity networks.
ELVITEN will holistically tackle all issues impeding the wide market deployment of EL-Vs, by proposing replicable usage schemes to boost ownership or sharing of all categories of EL-Vs by systematic and occasional urban travellers and by light delivery companies. Existing charge points in the ELVITEN Demonstration Cities, including private ones, will be integrated in a Brokering and Booking service and EL-V charging possibilities will be integrated in the biggest eRoaming platform in the market, to enable EL-V users to charge independently from charge point operators. Sharing services will be set up and supporting policies and incentives will be put in place. ICT tools will be deployed to support and motivate EL-Vs usage, including a Brokering and a Booking service for EL-Vs and charge points, an EL-V fleet monitoring tool and Eco-Drive app, a Serious Game and an Incentive Management Smart Card.
One-year long demonstrations with 383 equipped EL-Vs of all categories in Genoa, Rome, Bari, Malaga, Berlin and Trikala, will allow the collection of a big data bank of trip data and usersʼ experiences and opinions after the trips. The analysis will shed light on the real driving and charging patterns of EL-Vs, on reported problems encountered and on the usersʼ opinions and perceptions.
A Cost Benefit Analysis will evaluate the potential market uptake of EL-Vs. Sustainable business models will be proposed for sharing, rental, parking or charge services for EL-Vs and for the deployed ICT tools. Guidelines to EL-V manufacturers and to Planning Authorities will be prepared and agreements will be signed with another 50 Follower Cities so that they transfer in their own regions the ELVITEN usage schemes.
ICCS is the ELVITEN project coordinator, responsible for all operational and administrative coordination tasks and the project technical manager, responsible for ensuring that the technical work and deliverables conform to the planned schedule and budget and that the project meets its technological objectives. It is also responsible for the definition of the demonstrations methodology (T2.1), leader of the ELVITEN Demonstrations (WP4) and responsible for the acceptance evaluation (T5.3). ICCS will also work closely with the whole project consortium for the best planning of the ELVITEN dissemination activities towards the wide promotion of the project final results to all interested stakeholders.
Learn more at: http://www.elviten-project.eu/
IMOVE Unlocking Large-Scale Access to Combined Mobility through a European MaaS Network
IMOVE is an H2020 project, involving 15 partners from 9 EU Countries. The project aims to accelerate the deployment and unlock the scalability of MaaS schemes in Europe, ultimately paving the way for a “roaming” service for MaaS users at European level.
To this end, IMOVE will investigate and validate advanced solutions for improving MaaS deployment and operation and their underlying business models. Core ITS elements enabling MaaS development will be delivered, including enhanced real-time collection of data about user needs, habits and preferences and tools for the (controlled) exchange of information and tools to enhance interoperability among different service components and between different MaaS schemes.
The IMOVE impact will be tested at four sites, all strongly engaged in the MaaS domain and setting specific actions on existing or new MaaS schemes. The sites have been selected according to their complementarity, where success and failure factors for any specific measure and context will be investigated and evaluated. The resulting knowledge and lessons learned will be made available and shared with any interested MaaS operator.
ICCS is the leader of Work Package 3 "Data & Information Exchange Framework" and therefore responsible for the definition of a reference data & service model to interface the MaaS, facilitates the exchange of information along the MaaS value-chain and enables service operations to be developed within the project. The specific WP also takes care of the Open Research Data management, defining a Data Management Plan which will be iteratively update during the project.
An INtegrated next generation PREParedness programme for improving effective inter-organisational response capacity in complex environments of disasters and causes of crises
European countries confront the rising specter of transboundary crises, which cross national borders as well as policy boundaries, with speed and ease, threatening the continuing functioning of critical infrastructures and the well-being of many citizens. Transboundary crises pose a specific set of complex challenges for which Europe is – despite recent policy initiatives – still ill prepared.
IN-PREP has recognized and will address three challenges in the context of transboundary crises:
- Member states need to develop shared response planning.
- Countries need to share information in real time. This sense-making challenge requires a way to have multiple countries and agencies create a shared picture of an emerging crisis based on multiple sources.
- Countries need to coordinate the use of critical resources to ensure a timely response and to avoid waste and misspending.
To accomplishing above principal challenges, IN-PREP will establish and demonstrate a next generation programme by enabling: 1) a reference implementation framework of coordination operations (Handbook of Operations) and 2) a novel multi-disciplinary training platform (Mixed Reality Preparedness Platform) at the service of the entirety of civil protection stakeholders (firefighting units, medical emergency services, police forces, civil protection units, control command centers, assessment experts). The proposed framework will not only improve preparedness, response planning and scenario building but can be also applied during joint interventions, thus improving the joint capacity to respond. Moreover, the IN-PREP training programme is constructed around a rich set of Exercises and Demonstrations representative of high risk threats, disasters and causes of crisis that the European Civil Protection Community has faced and most importantly still needs to be better prepared on.
Addressing a complex and controversial subject, the IN-PREP unfolds several policy, organisational, scientific, technical and technological elements that come together to build the integrated vision of the IN-PREP next generation training programme to integrate novel tools for response planning and scenario building and thus optimise EU response capacity and resilience for large scale disasters and complex causes of crises. IN-PREP Consortium comprises of 20 partners and covers a large portion of Europe (7 Member States) amongst which 7 public bodies, including fire brigades, medical services, law enforcement, civil protection and command and control centers.
ICCS is the Action Coordinator of the IN-PREP and is leading the Work-Package on “Consortium Management & Innovation Development”. Another role for ICCS is on managing the Action risks and implementing an appropriate mitigation strategy. Moreover, ICCS will steer and realise micro-projects during Action implementation for liaising with external parties (addressing the technical and user domains) to integrate their tools with IN-PREP Training Platform. From the technical side, ICCS will design and develop the IN-PREP Communication Module that will govern the entirety of communication interfaces among interworking systems (C2, IS, SA) of the MRPP and will contribute to the overall system integration.
More information about IN-PREP can be found in the following URL: www.in-prep.eu
IN-PREP has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research & innovation programme under grant agreement no 740627.
Technological and Methodological Solutions for Integrated Wide Area Situation Awareness and Survivor Localisation to Support Search and Rescue Teams
INACHUS aims to achieve significant time reduction for Urban Search and Rescue (USaR) operations. This is enabled by wide-area situation awareness solutions for improved detection and localization of the trapped victims assisted by simulation tools for predicting structural failures. Additionally, a holistic decision support mechanism incorporates operational procedures and resources of relevant actors to the system. INACHUS will assist the operations of First Responders (FRs) and USaR teams by providing an integrated platform that will enhance the operational effectiveness of all actors involved in complex USaR and first response activities. Towards this direction, INACHUS will:
- Offer deeper understanding of typical scenarios for structural failures and their damages following various types of incidents;
- Integrate new types of sensors and technologies for detecting and localizing trapped alive humans.
ICCS main roles inside INACHUS are the following:
- INACHUS Project Coordinator and Financial Manager
- Technical and Quality Manager
- Leader of WP7 – Secure Communications and Positioning
- Significant role in System Architecture
- Long-wave Infrared Cameras for human presence indication / computer vision algorithms
- 3D measurements from image analysis / exploitation of 3D data (semantics and data matching)
Website: http://www.inachus.eu/