Innovation-hub Mobility on Implementation Automated Transport (IMIAT)

Towards automated freight transport

With the IMIAT platform, ACE aims to contribute to the ideal arrangement of automated freight mobility within the future society. 
Automated freight transport contributes to the ideal arrangement of mobility by:
1. Reducing transport costs; 
2. Pursuing future-proof labour markets; 
3. Increasing road safety; 
4. Reducing harmful emissions;
5. Reducing congestion on motorways. 
The Netherlands has a lot of technological know-how in ICT, data and other technologies that the automotive industry also uses. In the field of Connected and Automated transport, these technologies have already been applied on a small scale in passenger transport, but in automated transport there are still big steps to be made.  
There is also an economic opportunity here: CAT will reduce transport costs (especially by reducing labour costs and more efficient deployment of vehicles). This improves the competitive position and thus increases the market share of Dutch logistics service providers. Automated freight transport also contributes to increasing the flow of road traffic. By allowing full 24/7 use of the infrastructure (without restrictions in drivers' working hours), it contributes to increasing productivity and efficiency of the road network. The reduction of accidents caused by human errors and the consequent decreasing consequential damage also has a positive effect on traffic flow. 

Vision

The vision of the participants of the IMIAT platform (industry and knowledge institutes) is that we enable automated freight transport on highways by jointly pooling knowledge step by step . Forming a sustainable platform to bring knowledge to the labour market and education is also important for the realisation of automated freight transport. 

Objectives

- Cooperation with public and private organisations
- Intensive cooperation with lectorates of educational institutions
- Draw up a knowledge agenda to stimulate education and the labour market to train future personnel
- Participation in (inter)national projects in the field of knowledge dissemination

Experimentation and testing 

It is unthinkable to introduce CAT into practice untested overnight. Professional phased experiments, simulations, tests and homologations of all innovations must precede this. Functional Safety Compliance (FSC ISO 26262) and Safety Integration Levels (SIL IEC 50128) should be paramount. The test phase is performed in a virtual environment ('Digital Twin') that sufficiently resembles the real situation. In addition, testing and implementation will take place in a closed environment, semi-open environment and real-life in areas relevant to the use case. In these experimental environments, knowledge institutes build up knowledge that can be used together with industry, both in projects with industry and in the curricula of their (automotive and other) courses. Joining IMIAT are the relevant lectorates of the HAN and Fontys universities of applied sciences.

Consortium

Joining the IMIAT platform are a number of organisations such as DB Schenker, KLG, Ewals Cargo Care and TRTA from the transport sector. Technology companies also play a major role. Data and data processing are indispensable in the automotive industry. TBA, ICT-Group, V-tron, Hyster-Yale, Terberg Benschop are therefore also affiliated. The knowledge institutions involved are HAN and Fontys.  
ACE mobility requests companies, knowledge institutions and governments interested in the IMIAT platform to get in touch. They can join the consortium, think along and participate.