Historic cities such as Siena, Aalborg and many ‘old towns’ within larger conurbations suffer excessively from the congestion and pollution that 21st century transport brings. You can ban the cars, but what about the problem of delivery vans and trucks? Researchers hope they have an answer.
Under the European Commission’s IST programme, the EDRUL pilot project investigated and tested an innovative e-logistics platform and services to manage freight distribution in such urban areas. T
Mobility Trends, the first international trade show for technological innovations and trends in mobility and transport, will take place from 31 May to 2 June 2006 at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre. This unique trade show will bring together both the public and private sectors, including key design, research and industry players, in order to initiate inter-sectorial cooperation and partnerships leading to technological developments.
Mobility Trends is designed for all man
Sound can be used to control the flow of air over an aircraft’s wing greatly boosting its lift, according to Ian Salmon, a Sydney aerospace engineer who is working on applying this idea to a new generation of light aircraft.
Ian has developed a technique whereby a wing is covered with flexible plastic panels which vibrate when an electric current is passed through them, and produce sound. At a carefully selected frequency, the air passing over the wing can be made to remain more c
A single airline can have thousands of planes taking off and landing all over the world every day. Since every minute is expensive and security is a top priority, somebody has to keep them in line. Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has come up with a solution to the problem.
Mattias Grönkvist, author of a dissertation on the subject, describes the difficulty in concrete terms:
“If ten plans have just landed at an airport, you have to have a schedule that says in
PRONAL of France has developed new elastomer materials for use in manufacturing onboard fuel tanks for helicopters and civilian and military aircraft. The company manufactures fully vulcanised tanks, which guarantee perfect tightness. The new materials developed by PRONAL are highly resistant to hydrocarbons and additives. They have an excellent strength/weight ratio, and are lighter than anything else on the market.
PRONAL offers different versions of the tanks – anti-crash tank
The military’s next generation of airborne drones won’t be just small and silent – they’ll also dive between buildings, zoom under overpasses and land on apartment balconies.
At least, that’s what University of Florida engineers are working toward.
Funded by the U.S. Air Force and NASA, UF aerospace engineers have built prototypes of 6-inch- to 2-foot- drones capable of squeezing in and out of tight spots in cities — like tiny urban stunt planes. Their secret: seagull-in
European researchers have developed an innovative satellite-based control and command system for low-density railway lines that could herald a minor revolution in train transportation management.
“There is a real need for this technology,” says LOCOPROL project coordinator Michel Rousseau. “Existing command-control systems adapted for medium traffic density lines or the future ERTMS/ETCS [European Rail Traffic Management System/ European Train Control System] system dedicated to hi
LIER (INRETS Road Equipment Test Laboratory) of France uses state-of-the-art technology to accredit road-safety devices. Clients use the services of LIER to develop and improve their road-safety products with the aim of obtaining both French and foreign accreditation, especially with respect to the new EN1317 European standard.
LIER is the European leader in the regulatory crash testing of different forms of road-side safety barriers or VRS (Vehicle Restraint Systems). It i
A novel intelligent transport system to increase traffic safety provides a range of smart solutions to help reduce the risk of accidents in tunnels.
The average frequency of fires in tunnels is higher than 25 per 100 million vehicle kilometres and the frequency of fires involving heavy goods vehicles (HGV) is higher than that for passenger cars. For example, last June, a truck hauling tyres burst into flames while travelling through the 12.8 km Frejus tunnel between Lyon, France
Successfully prototyped hardware and software that helps keep rail operators on track with their maintenance offers real-time diagnostic capabilities and remote monitoring for train systems through the use of Internet technology.
EUROMAIN aimed to define a complete maintenance support system for rail operators, one that would support real-time monitoring and diagnosis of systems and equipment aboard trains and in fixed plants. However the project team also intended to establish st
EUREKA project E! 2635 LOGCHAIN TRANSLOG SAFETY has developed a satellite-based communications system to monitor rail freight between Europe and Asia. Geostationary and orbiting satellites integrated in a single antenna ensure a fast response mechanism to potential hazards when dangerous materials are being moved. This makes transporting goods by rail safer and more efficient than ever, while the monitoring centre itself can be situated anywhere according to need.
“We have created an
Human error, bad weather and ineffective ground radar can all have devastating consequences for airport safety, possibly leading to a huge number of fatalities. New complementary airport safety systems currently under development promise to avoid such incidences their potential impact in the future.
“Though technology has come a long way in recent years toward improving airport safety, it is evident that current systems using ground radar or cameras to detect aircraft and othe
Millions of vehicles produced each year are transported by purpose-built car carrying ships that can be turned around quickly. Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council confirms that as a consequence of technical, infrastructure and production changes in the industry, crew members have experienced a decline in work/life balance. Shore leave for many may amount to having time for a telephone call home at the port of destination only – before needing to set sail again.
Delayed trains cost time and money not just for passengers but also for railway operators and national economies. Enhancing the performance of rail networks and improving the exploitation of existing infrastructure is the COMBINE 2 project.
Since the IST programme-funded project ended early last year, the COMBINE 2 algorithms have gone on to be used commercially in the Milan metro and its system has undergone extensive field trials with real trains in The Netherlands, proving its p
A new article publishing in the latest issue of Review of Policy Research examines the evolution and devolution of speed limit laws and their effects on fatality rates. The author did not find a significant increase in fatalities per miles driven after speed limit laws ceased to be national and states could, and some did, increase their highway limit to more than fifty-five miles per hour. “Automobile safety features and enforcement emerge as important factors in increasing highway safety; sp
Air traffic control is one of the most demanding safety critical distributed systems with an enviable safety record. Using computer modelling researchers developed innovative approaches to handling uncertainty when designing such complex safety critical operations.
It’s a scary thought, but air traffic brings with it the chance of a mid-air collision. But the safety record of the air industry is excellent, so obviously it works well. “The system has grown in an evolutionary wa
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