Modular Autonomous Networked Urban Vehicles

This site presents an outline of a standard international specification for modular autonomous networked urban vehicles as the basis for a future urban transport system.

Version 0.0, May 2018. Version 0.1 November 2022.

Objective

To define and specify a modular transport system that is able to undertake the great bulk of smaller urban transport tasks currently undertaken by private motor vehicles. It will complement transport in larger vehicles and containers, including standard shipping containers and public transit systems.

Definition

An modular autonomous networked urban vehicle is a networkable modular self driving transport unit with standardised specifications including:

The aim is that the container should be able to carry out most of the tasks carried out by domestic and commercial motor vehicles without the need for a local or remote driver.

Dimensions

The vehicle's internal dimensions are such that it is able to deliver or remove loads including:

A shorter vehicle allows more vehicles per hour and efficient delivery of small loads; longer vehicles allow delivery of larger or heavier loads in a single vehicle. A single size of vehicle allows completely standardised networking. Combinations of 'half sized' or double or triple vehicles travelling together would be more difficult to network but could probably be accommodated (as is a mix of 20ft and 40ft shipping containers).

The vehicle's width is fixed so that it occupies a standardised single traffic lane, including in structures such as bridges, tunnels, lifts and multistorey carparks.

The vehicle's maximum height might be 5ft (1500mm). Lower vehicles would be acceptable.

A vehicle 3m (10ft) long, 1800mm (6ft) wide and 1500mm (5ft) high would be fine for transport of people; but might not be ideal for freight.

Weight

The vehicle's maximum gross weight is such that it can carry reasonable bulk loads of, for example, concrete.

The maximum weight is such that in the event of a breakdown the vehicle can be shunted by  one other vehicle or lifted by a pair of other vehicles (one in front, other to the rear).

Maximum weight determines engineering requirements for bridges and other structures.

Strength

The vehicle is strong enough that it can be shunted end to end, lifted by its ends when fully loaded, and can carry bulk loads of dense materials such as concrete. Specialised vehicles might be strengthened e.g. for transport of bullion.

The vehicle is not designed to be stacked vertically.

Network connectivity and autonomy

The vehicle has local autonomy so that when not networked it can operate over 'the last mile'. It can avoid collisions, maintain its place in a dense network, learn the best way of getting to its destination.

The vehicle has network connectivity to enable it to bid for and book slots in the transport network.

Network design

The system comprises two parts: the network part in which all vehicles operate entirely as part of a system; and the autonomous part, where vehicles operate with a degree of autonomy.

The network part operates to and between nodes. Nodes allow transfer of vehicles from autonomous mode to fully networked, and vice versa, i.e. getting onto and off the network part. An adaptation of ski lift loading and unloading might be required where node space is at a premium and additional acceleration is required.

Physical design would be such as to allow modular vehicles to operate within their specifications (e.g. weight limits, speed limits, power limits, dimensions). Radius of curvature on bends would allow carriage of long loads across multiple vehicles.

Acceleration

The vehicle has sufficient acceleration to enter a slot in a dense network and maintain its position in the network.

The vehicle has sufficient stopping power to avoid collisions in autonomous mode.

In autonomous mode, the vehicle has sufficient acceleration to deliver itself to its destination (e.g. to deliver concrete to a building site).

Speed

The vehicle has a set cruising speed, the speed at which it travels when in the connected transport network.

The vehicle can operate at lower speeds when in autonomous mode (e.g. for the 'last mile', on building sites, in private premises, in parking stations). The maximum speed in autonomous mode might be set to provide a high level of safety e.g. 20km/hr.

Noise

Vehicles will be designed and operated under a maximum external noise level. Where less external noise is required, the vehicle can be operated in an enclosed and/or acoustically isolated track.

Stackability

The vehicle can be stacked horizontally to form trains or platoons. It can be shunted.

The vehicle cannot be stacked vertically.

Stability

The vehicle has sufficient stability that it can withstand all normal acceleration, both axial and radial. As the network operates at a fixed speed, network tracks can be optimised for camber.

Power and range

The vehicle has sufficient power to provide the required acceleration under all operating conditions, including at design speed on design slopes carrying its full design load.

The vehicle has sufficient range to meet the needs of the network for the destinations for which the vehicle can be programmed.

The vehicle can be powered and recharged from the network.

Durability

The vehicle has sufficient durability to operate for its design life.

The vehicle can be readily repaired.

At the end of its design life, or at the end of the life of its component parts, the vehicle and its parts can be readily recycled.

Reliability

The vehicle has modular parts that have a design life. The vehicle is self monitoring to report when parts and components are approaching the end of their design life and need maintenance or replacement. Each vehicle is sufficiently reliable that breakdowns on the network are minimal. Vehicles are able to take another route if the preferred route is not available.

Ownership

Vehicles may be privately or publicly owned, individually or as fleets, allowing full adaptability to various uses while maintaining complete network capability and compatibility.

Examples

A passenger vehicle in private ownership will have standard batteries, motors and dimensions. But it can be fitted out as a campervan, people mover or luxury town car. It can be garaged locally or remotely. Internal noise levels, window tinting etc can be adapted as required.

A delivery vehicle might have autonomous loading and unloading capacity, might be refrigerated or have radiation or other security shielding.

A garbage/waste collection vehicle might have autonomous loading and unloading capacity for general waste, recyclables etc. It might be able to be tipped to unload it.

A concrete delivery vehicle might have the capacity to increase its ground clearance when off the network to enable it to traverse building sites. Or it might be able to be picked up by a crane, or lifted by a lift. A specialist vehicle or combination of vehicles might be able to pump concrete, or bring a complete set of concrete pump components onto a building site for rapid assembly.

A pizza delivery vehicle might be fully automated to load ingredients and fuel, and cook pizzas while under way.

Emergency vehicles might be equipped for firefighting, first aid or remote controlled access. They would not be able to travel faster than the network design speed, nor be individually heavier than the design specification, but could book priority slots for congestion points and operate in combinations (e.g. pumper plus tanker).

Benefits

The network will operate at the design speed. Vehicles will travel constantly at that speed when in the network. The design speed will determine the 'speed' of the city. E.g., if the design speed is 50km/hr, all places within 25km of the city centre will be within 30 minutes of it. Faster transport for people can be provided by mass transit systems. Heavier transport for goods can be provided by shipping container lines. In principle, overnight transport could provide an interurban range of 500km (10 hours at 50km/hr) for freight or passengers. For comparison, estimates of average lifetime vehicle speeds (total distance covered divided by total hours operated over a vehicle's lifetime) include 30km/hour (global average: https://movotiv.com/statistics) and 40km/hour (67,000 miles / 2,700 hours, USA averages: http://www.cellomomcars.com/2013/01/the-average-speed-of-average-car.html), so 50km/hour (excluding the last km) in an urban environment could be a considerable improvement on current urban average speeds.

Vehicle densities will be much increased. Vehicles can operate on the network in platoons or trains, packed end to end. Because vehicles are standard width, tracks can be close packed side by side. Because vehicles are standard height, they can be close packed vertically. Many more vehicles can be packed into a tunnel or onto a bridge than where traffic lane design has to accommodate the occasional much larger vehicle. With 3m vehicles each with a payload of 500kg at a network speed of 50km/hr, each fully networked traffic lane has a capacity of around 16,000 vehicles (8,000 tonnes) per hour. (In 2010, 8 traffic lanes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge carried a total of around 160,000 vehicles per day).

Because of the standardised size, weight and speed of the vehicle module and network control, grade separated intersections and interchanges can become the norm, eliminating traffic lights.

Vehicles will be quiet, cannot be hooned: they can operate on much smaller roads than the current urban road system and be generally a lot less intrusive than current motor vehicles.

Vehicles can be remotely and densely parked when not in use. General use passenger and freight vehicles will be fungible - allowing last in, first out parking. Cleaning and servicing can be automated for standard (non-customised) vehicles.

A booking system for slots in the network will allow for efficient route planning, with known arrival times. Slots for peak demands e.g. for events, might be allocated by price.

Vehicles will be built to an international standard. Standardisation of the core vehicle, while allowing variants and customisation (e.g. of load carrying capacity or autonomous range), should lead to very low basic costs of production.

Vehicles could be fitted with conductors to allow powering from network track (e.g. via a third rail or similar), as well as fully autonomous operation (from batteries).

Low maximum speeds and tight network control reduce or eliminate the need for safety equipment to protect occupants and third parties.

Costs

The modular vehicle will have a strict limit on what can be fitted into it. It may not be possible to transport, for example, a king size bed or a boat. Once the system is established, modular construction and assembly should be able to overcome most size limitations. If ordinary roads are going to be done away with, leading to denser urban areas, then some alternative delivery mechanism might be required for large items e.g. aerial delivery. Limits on curvature of tracks might allow long narrow loads to span more than one vehicle.

Next steps

Develop and manage this website to be much more sophisticated. List more actions. Develop it as a wiki, enable contributions and participation.

Build small scale vehicles and networks. Develop network software. Develop autonomous vehicle software. Expand and develop the specification - with transport engineers, vehicle manufacturers, town planners, building industry, national and international standards organisations, motoring organisations, postal and goods delivery organisations. Develop urban infrastructure with adaptation to modular vehicles in mind.

Related work and experiments

New Operating Strategies for an On-the-Road Modular, Electric and Autonomous Vehicle Concept in Urban Transportation, by Christian Ulrich, Horst E. Friedrich, Jürgen Weimer and Stephan A. Schmid (https://www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/10/4/91/pdf, 10MB) takes some of the issues further.

Japan is contemplating a long distance conveyor belt system for modular freight delivery: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freighttech-friday-japans-proposed-conveyor-belt-highway.

The Swiss Cargo Sous Terrain is along similar modular lines: https://www.cst.ch/en/the-project/.

https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/lords-committees/science-technology/autonomous-vehicles/Autonomous-vehicles-evidence.pdf#page=194&zoom=100,90,124 reports on a British proposal to test a set of 40 autonomous 'pods' as a public transport system.

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