Transportation and Logistics
This field deals with all spatial and time-related activities involved in bridging the gap between goods and people, including their restructuring. This begins with the supplier and follows each stage of the operational value chain to product delivery and concludes with product disposal and recycling.
innovations-report provides informative reports and articles on such topics as traffic telematics, toll collection, traffic management systems, route planning, high-speed rail (Transrapid), traffic infrastructures, air safety, transport technologies, transport logistics, production logistics and mobility.
NASA research team successfully flies first laser-powered aircraft
Ever since the dawn of powered flight, it has been necessary for all aircraft to carry onboard fuel — whether in the form of batteries, fuel, solar cells, or even a human “engine” — in order to stay aloft.
But a team of researchers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif., and the University of Alabama in Huntsville is trying to change that.
They have now chalked up a major accomplishment… and a
Advanced Finnish technology for automotive wiring systems
Assisted by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, PKC Group, Finland works to develop bus technology applications for use in the power distribution and control systems on commercial vehicles. The concept is to offer customers flexible intelligent features while reducing the amount of wiring. The new LIN (Local Interconnect Network) technology was recently deemed to be the most promising technology to fulfil vehicle manufacturers’ new technological specifications.
To succeed in compe
Pay-as-you-go motoring just around the corner
Death and taxes may be unavoidable, but road tolls and car insurance could be made fairer if satellite-assisted distance pricing is implemented.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding Irish provider of location technology products Mapflow to undertake a feasibility study to look into the possibility of implementing a pan-European road tolling system. The research aims to establish whether satellite technology can be used to calculate the cost of motoring.
A plan exists to
Assessing and repairing roads and pavements
Repairing our roads when and where it is needed was the goal for EUREKA project GEOSECMA-PMS. The project team created a complete software ’’toolbox’’ for municipalities and road authorities to assist them in the maintenance of roads and streets, thereby providing a safer, more comfortable ride for the public and savings for local government.
Hans-Goeran Wilhelmsson, chief executive of KORDAB, lead partner in the project, says the results have benefited citizens as well a
New NIST Facility Soon Will Be ‘Reflecting’ on Safer Signs
Our roadways should get safer in the future, now that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a way to accurately and reliably measure how light reflects off stop signs and other road markings.
Road signs and markings are designed to be visible at night by retroreflectivity—that is, they reflect some of the light emitted by a vehicle’s headlights back toward the driver’s eyes. However, measurements of retroreflectivity have varied so much among different devic
Traffic navigation systems linked to accident risk
Swift or safe? That may be the question drivers with navigation systems ask themselves in future.
A new study by researchers at the University of Toronto Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Centre and Testbed suggests in-car systems, designed to guide drivers around traffic jams and accidents quickly, could actually cause a temporary surge in the risk of accidents. “Discovering that traveller information systems may be good for travel time but not for overall safety was shocking