Post a Comment Print Share on Facebook
Featured Israel Estados Unidos Rusia Podemos Ucrania

The mobility of the future is brewing in laboratories: autonomous and sustainable cars that will adapt to diversity

Redit Mobility shows projects from technological institutes on new materials, electrification and connectivity.

- 6 reads.

The mobility of the future is brewing in laboratories: autonomous and sustainable cars that will adapt to diversity

Redit Mobility shows projects from technological institutes on new materials, electrification and connectivity

VALENCIA, 23 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Vehicles "adaptable to your body and your preferences", which monitor the driver's condition in case he suffers from any health problem; with autonomous driving that can move us to the nearest charging point to feed the electric battery; that "anticipate the needs of the user" and even adapt to the needs of dependent people or people with reduced mobility.

This is how they project the future of mobility from iMoLab, a laboratory that brings together the research of six technological institutes integrated into Redit Mobility and that have shown their projects within the framework of the eMobility Expo World Congress held this week in Valencia. Nearly 15 companies from different sectors participate in this iMoLab in different projects, many developed in collaboration with Ivace.

The Redit Mobility coordinator, Javier Sánchez, explains that "smart mobility has to serve people and at the same time be intelligent in terms of how to develop without putting the environment and the planet at risk." In addition, it must be "easy to learn and use", because "it is not only that we have more and more controls that we have to learn to play", but that "the systems are capable of understanding our emotions, of knowing our needs , which we will have to communicate to them in some way, to provide us with the best service", according to what he explained in an interview with Europa Press.

The laboratories of the technological institutes have "a lot of simulation capacity" and give a glimpse of what the vehicles of the future will be like: "Autonomous, electric, digital, sustainable not only in energy consumption, but also in terms of the materials themselves", predicts the coordinator of Redit Mobility, which gives as examples the development by Aimplas of "plastics with the capacity to incorporate electronic circuits to lighten the materials" or an ITC project that provides a second life for batteries. "All of that is going to contribute to this future," he says.

Under these premises, in Redit Mobility's iMoLab, a simulated IBV environment shows the type of analysis that can be made of the Driving Monitoring Systems (DMS) --driver monitoring systems--, also integrated with the ITI proposal of Communication with signage, such as the traffic light or the sign placed on the frame.

"If a driver is falling asleep, the system we have in place is capable of recording the breathing rate and determining how it relates to the onset of drowsiness to prevent them from falling asleep and causing problems. We can also record where they are looking or measure the emotions of this person, if they are distracted or upset, because the environment, circumstances or a conversation have affected their state of mind and the vehicle can respond to that", Sánchez details.

And it is that "driving assistance systems are not only the lane, the warning of approaching vehicles or people who may cross, but also knowing at what point the person is behind the wheel to be able to help", details Sánchez.

Thus, one of the keys to the mobility of the future is, for Javier Sánchez, the interaction with the user, "to anticipate their needs". "One of the things that I think will happen in the future is that if I feel bad in the vehicle, they can help me or even take me to the hospital," they comment from Redit Mobility.

In addition, Javier Sánchez points out that "an aspect that companies are interested in is that many people are going to join the vehicle, including the elderly, pregnant women or children", and "the cabins have not thought much about this universal accessibility that, however, it can be solved in a fairly simple way." "Society generates a lot of diversity and you have to attend to it," he explains.

For example, within the field of autonomous vehicles, the transport of goods also enters. One of the iMoLab centers, Aidimme, presents "a personalized merchandise dispenser robot" that delivers its load with a robotic arm after reading a QR code, designed to serve people with reduced mobility or the elderly.

"In an environment of supervised housing with the elderly with different degrees of dependency, a robotic system like this can go from room to room to give each person the menu or medicine they need. In the future, these social robots will be able to interact and warn if the person is upset or even if they have suffered a mishap", explained Sánchez.

On the other hand, the electrification of mobility is one of the keys to the near future and one of its challenges is to extend the network of charging points along roads and cities. To show how to go from virtual evaluations to real scenarios, ITE has presented a smart charger and its mobile application. "We also have the metaverse application, where what is being done is an R&D test of an intelligent charging system connected to the mobile in an area of ​​the city of Valencia that is well known as the Estación del Norte", explains the coordinator from REDIT Mobility.

With this virtual reality simulator, companies can see how users relate to the charger before prototyping it and investing money without seeing acceptance.

Javier Sánchez recounts that for a long time work has been done so that, before leaving home, citizens can already notify the vehicle of their route and can "know in advance what your wishes or agenda are", so that "you can prepare and dialogue with the rest of the intelligent infrastructures", plan routes with stops on duty and even battery recharges. In addition, once in the car, "the vehicle could receive you", "be customized in some way" in its dimensions, the temperature or even that the way of conversing with the technology is adapted to what you like".

"Then you start driving and he begins to dialogue, for example, with the traffic lights, which tell the vehicle that in 20 seconds it will turn green and the vehicle adjusts its speed," he explained.

One of the lines of work of the iMoLab is Living iMoLab, which will be physical test spaces that are being projected in collaboration with the Paterna City Council to "precisely have places for I D i and test solutions both in the city and in an environment like the Technological Park". It is "the first step that must be taken to be able to deploy the new solutions, having verified in a safe environment and in a scientific environment how they really work", explains Sánchez.

The REDIT Mobility coordinator points out that there are challenges so that all these advances can be part of our daily reality. "There is a part of technological development that evolves very quickly and there is a part that evolves more slowly. It will take a few years for the autonomous vehicle to become a widespread reality, but the assistance systems will be incorporated as they become more develop", he ventured, before considering that in the coming years "we are going to have very different vehicles".

A challenge that Javier Sánchez points out is the standardization of chargers for vehicles, which must be "harmonized" in order to make investments in highways and cities. He also comments on the challenge of making monitoring systems "compatible with people's privacy."