On 1 June, the European project ENSEMBLE officially started its activities towards the implementation and demonstration of multi-brand truck platooning on European roads. As it paves the way for the adoption of multi-brand truck platooning in Europe that will improve fuel economy, CO2 emissions, traffic capacity and throughput for the road freight sector, the results of ENSEMBLE provide new opportunities with societal and economic impact. Through real-world testing across national borders, the impact on traffic, infrastructure and logistics will be assessed, whilst gathering relevant data of safety-relevant scenarios and the corresponding harmonisation of approval requirements required. The challenging journey began with a kick-off meeting in Eindhoven.
During the first year, the project partners will concentrate on setting the specifications and developing a reference design with acceptance criteria. This reference design will be taken up by the OEMs and suppliers for implementation on their own trucks during the second year, while the knowledge partners will perform impact assessments with several criteria. Year three of the project will focus on testing the multi-brand platoons on test tracks and international public roads. The technical results will be evaluated against the initial requirements. Also, the impact on fuel consumption, drivers and other road users will be established. In the end, all activities within the project aim to accelerate the deployment of multi-brand truck platooning in Europe.
The ENSEMBLE project is led by ERTICO’s Partner TNO. ERTICO – ITS Europe, being the platform for the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders to develop and deploy ITS in Europe, will ensure outbound focus by involving stakeholders and by being the link to the European Truck Platooning Community.
All six European truck manufacturers will bring in their pre-eminent technological position on platooning: DAF, DAIMLER, IVECO, MAN, SCANIA and VOLVO Technology (VOLVO TRUCKS & RENAULT TRUCKS). CLEPA represents the suppliers of automotive equipment and components and will support research, innovation and deployment as drivers for industrial growth. the following suppliers are also a partner of the project: NXP, ZF, Bosch, Continental, Brembo and WABCO.
The consortium is completed by the knowledge partners: IDIADA (validation and legal challenges), IFSTTAR (impact assessment on infrastructure, traffic flow, road safety and perception by users and logistics), KTH (platooning services) and VU Brussel (platooning business case). This project is partly funded by the European Commission.
