Thanks to the EU co-funded ENSEMBLE project, multi-brand truck platooning has become a reality in Europe! On 23 September 2021, the ENSEMBLE project successfully deployed its multi-brand platooning technology!
Mr Joan Carbó, Director of Chassis and Active Safety, IDIADA and Mrs Maria Lourdes Puigbarraca, Subdirector General of Traffic Management, Catalonian Traffic Service, kicked off the prestigious ENSEMBLE Public Demonstration in the Barcelona region. Seven trucks, well prepared by the major European truck manufacturers (OEMs), joined and drove together in a fully coordinated platoon for the first time. The European OEMs demonstrated the result of a three-year collaborated development that started in June 2018. DAF, DAIMLER TRUCKS, IVECO, MAN TRUCKS&BUS, RENAULT TRUCKS, SCANIA and VOLVO TRUCKS. The result is a common solution, ready for further standardization.
The ENSEMBLE consortium, coordinated by TNO, The Netherlands, implemented and demonstrated multi-brand truck platooning with the first aim to ensure more traffic safety on European roads.
The basis of this realization is the specifically developed V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) communication protocol that supports the correct behaviour and reaction of each of the trucks in the platoon for every envisioned traffic use case.
‘As such, this technology is a significant step forward to fully connected automated driving. It supports improvements in traffic safety, fuel economy and improvement of logistics efficiency’ says Marika Hoedemaeker, ENSEMBLE project coordinator.
Via the ETPC (European Truck Platooning Challenge), organized by ERTICO and University Gustave Eiffel, all stakeholders are involved. Two Operation Levels are defined to guide the design of different platooning functionalities and strategies, reflecting the full diversity of trucks and fulfilling the road authorities’ current and future requirements.
At ENSEMBLE’s public event that took place at the Fira Congress Barcelona Hotel, participants experienced a live broadcast of a platooning demonstration on the Spanish highways in real-time, as well as an exciting program of presentations about the technical implementations and further standardization opportunities of platooning.
The PPT Presentations of the speakers, presenting at the event can be found, here.
For pictures of the event, please click here.
The ENSEMBLE Partners
The ENSEMBLE project is led by TNO. All major European truck manufacturers added their forerunning technological position on platooning: DAF, DAIMLER TRUCKS, IVECO, MAN TRUCKS&BUS, RENAULT TRUCKS, SCANIA and VOLVO TRUCKS. CLEPA represents the equipment and components’ suppliers and by doing do supports research, innovation and the deployment of drivers for industrial growth. Specific suppliers are supporting the OEM implementations: ZF, NXP and WABCO. ERTICO – ITS Europe, being the platform for the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders to develop and deploy ITS in Europe, ensures outbound focus by involving stakeholders and by being the link to the European Truck Platooning Community. The knowledge partners complete the consortium: IDIADA (validation and legal challenges), Université Gustave Eiffel, KTH (platooning services) and VU Brussel (business case of platooning).
