Periodic Reporting for period 1 - URBANIZED (modUlaR and flexible solutions for urBAN-sIzed Zero-Emissions last-mile Delivery and services vehicles)
Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-06-30
The overarching objective of URBANIZED is to develop and demonstrate a new flexible and modular vehicle platform for small commercial e-vehicles, satisfying design principles of right-sizing vehicles for specific missions in three dimensions:
1) high-efficiency e-powertrain components and control architectures, through the use of advanced hardware and software co-design approaches.
2) interchangeable, plug & play cargo modules for different Urban Freight Transport (UFT) as defined by the European Commission Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (Retail (including e-commerce), Express/Couriers/Post, Hotel/Restaurant/Catering (HoReCa), Construction and Waste).
3) integrated energy and fleet management strategies using data, connectivity and predictive control algorithms.
The steadily growing demand related to increasing urbanisation is turning the management of logistics flows in urban areas a more complex process, with higher demand for adaptability and flexibility for the new solutions to contribute to optimise the overall transport capacity, reducing operational costs and negative impacts (health safety).
URBANIZED will focus on the design of a small, modular, all-electric, UFT N1 category vehicle and related connected e-powertrain technologies, purpose-designed to dramatically improve operations compared to the vehicles used today for the same missions, and reducing the impacts associated with the 5 UFT market sectors.
URBANIZED will validate and test the design with two relevant use cases, including different specific related missions as defined by the end-users.
URBANIZED follows a holistic design approach working at 3 levels (systems, vehicle, fleet) during the entire project: starting with the definition of specific mission profiles within 2 main pre-selected use cases (last-mile delivery of retail, e-commerce, courier and post; HoReCa and other urban on-demand services), during the optimization loops of the design process, and until project demonstrations, to be performed both physical and in virtual environments, covering the specific requirements of operators.
URBANIZED brings a complementary multi- disciplinary consortium of 9 partners from 6 EU countries, involving all relevant actors from the value chain, from academic, to industrial (TIER1, OEMs) and logistics operators aiming at broadening dissemination and impact.
The main project objectives are the following:
OBJ 1. Develop and implement a novel e-powertrain platform capable of achieving, at least, an overall 10 % energy efficiency increase compared to best in class market references.
OBJ 2. Demonstrate a cost-effective solution to substantially reduce vehicle energy consumption and operational costs thanks to connectivity and (big) data algorithms by developing and implementing a self-adapted and predictive multi-level, multi-layer Energy Management System (EMS).
OBJ 3. Achieve a substantial reduction of vehicle purchasing costs.
OBJ 4. Develop a light commercial e-vehicle with better safety features comparable to 4 stars Euro NCAP (Heavy quadricycle protocol).
OBJ 5. Demonstrate the technical, economic and operational benefits of the developments in relevant environment by integrating them in a operative prototype (N1) and performing real-life demonstrations with this prototype in urban roads in Belgium and upscaling operations at fleet level in the virtual city environment of Thessaloniki Living Lab.
OBJ 6. Increase the acceptance and foster market uptake of the URBANIZED solutions by performing dedicated dissemination actions.
1) high-efficiency e-powertrain components and control architectures, through the use of advanced hardware and software co-design approaches.
2) interchangeable, plug & play cargo modules for different Urban Freight Transport (UFT) as defined by the European Commission Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (Retail (including e-commerce), Express/Couriers/Post, Hotel/Restaurant/Catering (HoReCa), Construction and Waste).
3) integrated energy and fleet management strategies using data, connectivity and predictive control algorithms.
The steadily growing demand related to increasing urbanisation is turning the management of logistics flows in urban areas a more complex process, with higher demand for adaptability and flexibility for the new solutions to contribute to optimise the overall transport capacity, reducing operational costs and negative impacts (health safety).
URBANIZED will focus on the design of a small, modular, all-electric, UFT N1 category vehicle and related connected e-powertrain technologies, purpose-designed to dramatically improve operations compared to the vehicles used today for the same missions, and reducing the impacts associated with the 5 UFT market sectors.
URBANIZED will validate and test the design with two relevant use cases, including different specific related missions as defined by the end-users.
URBANIZED follows a holistic design approach working at 3 levels (systems, vehicle, fleet) during the entire project: starting with the definition of specific mission profiles within 2 main pre-selected use cases (last-mile delivery of retail, e-commerce, courier and post; HoReCa and other urban on-demand services), during the optimization loops of the design process, and until project demonstrations, to be performed both physical and in virtual environments, covering the specific requirements of operators.
URBANIZED brings a complementary multi- disciplinary consortium of 9 partners from 6 EU countries, involving all relevant actors from the value chain, from academic, to industrial (TIER1, OEMs) and logistics operators aiming at broadening dissemination and impact.
The main project objectives are the following:
OBJ 1. Develop and implement a novel e-powertrain platform capable of achieving, at least, an overall 10 % energy efficiency increase compared to best in class market references.
OBJ 2. Demonstrate a cost-effective solution to substantially reduce vehicle energy consumption and operational costs thanks to connectivity and (big) data algorithms by developing and implementing a self-adapted and predictive multi-level, multi-layer Energy Management System (EMS).
OBJ 3. Achieve a substantial reduction of vehicle purchasing costs.
OBJ 4. Develop a light commercial e-vehicle with better safety features comparable to 4 stars Euro NCAP (Heavy quadricycle protocol).
OBJ 5. Demonstrate the technical, economic and operational benefits of the developments in relevant environment by integrating them in a operative prototype (N1) and performing real-life demonstrations with this prototype in urban roads in Belgium and upscaling operations at fleet level in the virtual city environment of Thessaloniki Living Lab.
OBJ 6. Increase the acceptance and foster market uptake of the URBANIZED solutions by performing dedicated dissemination actions.
Taking into account our holistic approach divided in 3 levels, the work performed is summarised below:
At vehicle level
• Definition of mission profiles and KPI within two main use cases.
• Identification of vehicle requirements. On functional, operational and safety level.
• Definition of design specifications and risk analysis.
• Preliminary definition of Homologation requirements for the N1 category vehicle.
• Design of the vehicle to meet passive safety requirements.
• Definition of overall architecture for multi-layer energy management strategies considering the cloud-based data for fleet management.
At system level
• Development of a virtual prototyping tool (multi-levels simulation) of the vehicle drivetrain systems with integrated optimization framework to optimize the size and design of vehicle drivetrain system.
• Cooling concepts of the e-powertrain components, especially power electronics inverter based on wide bandgap (WBG) technologies and e-motor.
• Design of the components (inverter, e-machine, reducer) of the improved new axle drive.
• Design of an improved On-Board-Charger (OBC).
• Holistic design alignment for modular cargo body and chassis.
At fleet level
• Definition of overall architecture for multi-layer energy management strategies considering the cloud-based data for fleet management.
• Energy Management Strategies design on vehicle and fleet level.
Initial dissemination activities
• Organization of 2 workshops with experts and logistics stakeholders to communicate the project and retrieve feedback important for the design of the roadmap about policy initiatives.
• Participation at two conferences.
• Cooperation with other projects.
At vehicle level
• Definition of mission profiles and KPI within two main use cases.
• Identification of vehicle requirements. On functional, operational and safety level.
• Definition of design specifications and risk analysis.
• Preliminary definition of Homologation requirements for the N1 category vehicle.
• Design of the vehicle to meet passive safety requirements.
• Definition of overall architecture for multi-layer energy management strategies considering the cloud-based data for fleet management.
At system level
• Development of a virtual prototyping tool (multi-levels simulation) of the vehicle drivetrain systems with integrated optimization framework to optimize the size and design of vehicle drivetrain system.
• Cooling concepts of the e-powertrain components, especially power electronics inverter based on wide bandgap (WBG) technologies and e-motor.
• Design of the components (inverter, e-machine, reducer) of the improved new axle drive.
• Design of an improved On-Board-Charger (OBC).
• Holistic design alignment for modular cargo body and chassis.
At fleet level
• Definition of overall architecture for multi-layer energy management strategies considering the cloud-based data for fleet management.
• Energy Management Strategies design on vehicle and fleet level.
Initial dissemination activities
• Organization of 2 workshops with experts and logistics stakeholders to communicate the project and retrieve feedback important for the design of the roadmap about policy initiatives.
• Participation at two conferences.
• Cooperation with other projects.
State of the art of this type of vehicles are far away to meet high passive safety requirements. Passive safety components suppliers have not developed and specific product. Several investigations have been done to find suppliers that are willing to update their products to this market.
Regarding to a high efficiency e-powertrain current state of the art e-machines are focused on 96V to 350V operational voltage. Several auxiliary systems and electric tools for UFT vehicles are so far based on 48v
URBANIZED will develop an integrated, scalable e-axle for small commercial e-vehicles (from L7 to N1). The newly developed e-powertrain design will integrate the power electronics inverter, e-motor and transmission into a single, plug & play eAxleDrive unit, bringing the benefits of mass production to fit-for-purpose applications thanks to applying modular design targeting low-cost customization.
Regarding to a high efficiency e-powertrain current state of the art e-machines are focused on 96V to 350V operational voltage. Several auxiliary systems and electric tools for UFT vehicles are so far based on 48v
URBANIZED will develop an integrated, scalable e-axle for small commercial e-vehicles (from L7 to N1). The newly developed e-powertrain design will integrate the power electronics inverter, e-motor and transmission into a single, plug & play eAxleDrive unit, bringing the benefits of mass production to fit-for-purpose applications thanks to applying modular design targeting low-cost customization.