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TU-Clausthal Institute for Software and Systems Engineering

Thought together: passenger mobility and freight transport through multimodal logistics with public transportation and drones

Researchers at the Institute for Software and Systems Engineering at Clausthal University of Technology and six other project partners have successfully completed the "mobil-e-Hub" project after three years.

The innovation of the project lies in a new logistics concept that can link drones with transport boxes via carrier systems to electric vehicles - the mobil-e hubs - to merge passenger mobility and freight transport.

At the final demonstration, which took place on July 5, 2023 in Heidelberg, the ISSE presented a concept that was tested in the Harz test field.

This is an innovative logistics system that seamlessly combines passenger and freight transportation. This system consists of three key components:

(1) Parcel stations strategically placed to receive parcels by drone,

(2) Electric vehicles equipped with transportation boxes mounted via carrier systems,

(3) Charging infrastructure to recharge the electric vehicles.

The Harz test field was set up at both TU locations, ISSE in Clausthal and GoTEC in Goslar. The data evaluation of more than 60 completed trips has shown that more than 5200 km have been saved and more than 50 parcels have been transported. This showed that the logistics system implemented in the Harz test field can increase both the efficiency of parcel delivery and the mobility of TU Clausthal employees between different TU locations.

In order to safeguard the autonomous drone as a safety-critical system during its operation, two runtime monitors were developed to ensure that the drone stays on its route and does not enter no-fly zones, for example, and that it successfully carries out its mission.

The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) with over 3.5 million euros, of which the ISSE received a total funding amount of over 440,000 euros.

Three videos with a comprehensive presentation of the Harz test field and the runtime protection of drones can be found here.

The further development of intermodal logistics concepts for the transportation of people and goods is one of the cornerstones of the ISSE's future research focus and will be continued in the HitchHikeBox (BMWK) and 6R Logistics (BMWK) research projects. Research into intelligent charging infrastructure was also continued in the Lifecycling2 project (BMWK) in order to pursue the overarching issue of smart infrastructure.