Research Focuses

Focuses of our research

Research focus

Intelligent Transportation Systems and Logistics

One look at parked-up inner cities or kilometer-long highway traffic jams is revealing: We need new, intelligent mobility concepts and systems in which people, the environment and vehicles harmonize better. Scientists in the “Intelligent Transportation Systems and Logistics” research focus area are working on precisely this.

For the mobility of the future, they are developing automated cooperative and interacting mobility systems – from autonomous vehicles and novel concepts for local public transport and inner-city logistics to AI-supported processes for personal mobility management. Through close cooperation with companies from the mobility sector, they bridge the gap between basic research and practical application. Here, the FZI is a scientific leader in the research of new mobility concepts and contributes to their implementation in beneficial and custom-fit solutions for SMEs, industry, and society-at-large.

In application research, the FZI covers the entire design and processing chain of networked, automated mobility and logistics systems. Thanks to its excellent equipment with real-world laboratories and test vehicles, the FZI can conduct application-oriented and participatory research on safe, future mobility concepts for the intelligent and networked cities of the future. End users are always involved in the networked driving and charging of electric vehicles and intermodality in the context of surveys, acceptance studies, and forecasts.

Expertise

AI-based, fail-safe and explainable methods and function developments for autonomous and intelligent transportation systems as well as AI Systems Engineering for mobility systems
Novel automotive architectures and approaches for sensor data fusion of vehicle and infrastructure as well as infrastructure-supported driving
Data management, trust models, anonymization and data platforms as well as data sets for data-driven development and simulation of scalable systems
V&V, testing, and virtual qualification for validation
Simulation, planning and optimization of mobility and logistics systems in dynamic environments, such as relating to car-sharing approaches
Vehicle software platforms, connectivity and cloud services for networking in mobility systems
Close dovetailing of competencies in the areas of mobility and energy regarding e-mobility

Trends

Automated transportation, connected and infrastructure-based driving, privacy in mobility data, mobility data mining

New mobility and logistics applications are research topics that the FZI is tackling on a broad scale, such as automated public transit, autonomous small vehicles, and combined passenger and freight transport. A diverse spectrum is served here, from automated goods transport and related last-mile logistics. This is complemented by technologies for transportation with a focus on cooperative and connected driving as well as infrastructure-supported driving.

Other trend topics include obtaining better data for edge and corner cases in autonomous driving, linking data and research infrastructures, and advancing data-driven methods for mobility data and their anonymization. Topics such as centralized ECU architectures and AI-supported optimization of the on-board network architecture, infrastructure support for the operation and monitoring of automated public transportation, and the interconnection of automated transport of people and goods on the last mile in public transportation are also coming into focus. Automated and autonomous logistics processes in sensitive environments such as hospitals are also the subject of research at the FZI.

The acquisition of mobility data in qualitative, qualified and qualifiable data sets and the safeguarding of highly automated driving functions will also be further advanced in 2023. AI engineering for mobility, E/E architectures and crowd mapping are other aspects that will receive special attention. Questions relating to mobility law with suggestions for a specific mobility data protection law round off the research portfolio.

Transfer

Transformation Hub Automotive Software Engineering, Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-Württemberg, networking, CCAM partnership, open source & open data

The Transformation Hub Automotive Software Engineering (TASTE) coordinated by the FZI offers networking opportunities, orientation in the changing software supply chain of the automotive industry, and support in building software engineering competencies. Small and medium-sized enterprises will especially be empowered by the hub, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, to participate in the value creation around the software-driven vehicles of the future.

The Anonymization for Mobility Systems (ANYMOS) competence cluster – also coordinated by the FZI and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research – aims to establish anonymization as an enabling technology for data-based networked mobility applications. Anonymization reduces uncertainties around deciding whether a personal reference exists and regulations of data protection take effect. This makes it much easier to share and use data.

The FZI is also pursuing networking and transfer activities in the European context to bring research results into application, such as with the CCAM Partnership and/or the SHOW project. In the CCAM Partnership, the FZI is committed to creating a more user-centric and inclusive mobility system that increases road safety while reducing congestion and the environmental footprint. The SHOW project promotes and evaluates the future transformation of the current urban transit environment into a fully sustainable ecosystem driven by automation, electrification, cooperative approaches, and integration.

It is essential for the FZI to promote an open research culture and free access to research results also in the field of mobility. Where possible and appropriate, application solutions are published or used as open-source or open data, especially for sensor data acquisition, recording and refinement. In 2021, among other things, a virtual model of parts of the Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-Württemberg (TAF BW) was published. The continuation of TAF BW and FZI’s own Living Lab Future Mobility continues to be an important tool. The FZI owns numerous test vehicles for piloting mobility concepts, algorithms and components under real conditions in various areas of mobility, such as cargo bikes, passenger cars and shuttle vehicles. These are used in research groups and close cooperation with KIT to put theoretically gained knowledge into practice.

Research infrastructure

Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-Württemberg (TAF BW), FZI Living Lab Future Mobility, Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Bed, SecBike, Real Labs as well as virtual test environments

The Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-Württemberg (TAF BW) is a real laboratory for future mobility concepts. It is intended to promote the development of future-oriented solutions for individual and public transportation.
In the FZI Living Lab Future Mobility, software and hardware solutions for mobility and transport concepts for future vehicles and autonomous mobile systems are developed, researched and evaluated with our partners. The Living Lab will also include a hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) test bench for semi-virtual validation of vehicle functions.
Furthermore, there will be the new Co-Car NextGen test vehicle, which represents a long-term project initiative.
In addition to the various test vehicles and research vehicles like the FZI shuttles, the research infrastructure for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Logistics will also be expanded to include new mobility concepts such as the so-called SEC-Bike, a smart, electric city bike platform for central, urban traffic routes.
The infrastructure of real laboratories and research vehicles will be supplemented by virtual environments, test vehicles and simulations, which will support the generation of data for new use cases, but also the evaluation of completely new transportation and mobility concepts by researchers and users alike.