Research Focuses

Focuses of our research

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Photo: KVV/Paul Gärtner

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

Are you interested in our expertise?
Please feel free to contact us about possible collaborations or research commissions.

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Dr. Alexander Viehl

Division Manager
Intelligent Systems and Production Engineering

Research infrastructure

  • The Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-Württemberg is available as a real-world laboratory for mobility concepts and is intended to promote the development
    of future-oriented solutions for private and public transport.
  • The infrastructure of real-world laboratories and research vehicles is supplemented by virtual environments, test vehicles and simulations that support the generation of data for new use cases, but also the evaluation of completely new transport and mobility concepts by researchers and users alike.
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CoCar NextGen

CoCar NextGen is a groundbreaking research platform for automated and connected driving. Its modular structure, developed in-house, and access to the entire German road network are what make the platform stand out.

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FZI-Shuttle KIGLIS Abschlussveranstaltung auf dem KIT Campus OST

FZI-Shuttle

The highly automated and connected FZI shuttles are an ideal solution for the last mile and can be integrated into public transport systems as an on-demand solution, for example.

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  • In addition to the various test vehicles and research vehicles such as the FZI-Shuttles, the research infrastructure for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Logistics is also being expanded to include new mobility concepts such as the so-called SEC-Bike, a smart, electric city bike platform for central urban traffic routes.
  • At the FZI Living Lab Future Mobility, software and hardware solutions for mobility and transportation concepts for vehicles and autonomous mobile systems of future generations are developed, investigated and evaluated in cooperation with our partners. The Living Lab also offers a hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) test bench for the semi-virtual validation of vehicle functions.

Transfer

It is essential for the FZI to promote an open research culture and free access to research results in the mobility sector as well. Wherever possible and reasonable, the application solutions are available or used as open source or open data, especially for sensor data collection, recording, and refinement. Among other things, a virtual model of parts of the Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-Württemberg (TAF BW) has been published. The FZI has numerous test vehicles for testing mobility concepts, algorithms, and components under real-life conditions in various areas of mobility, such as cargo bikes, passenger vehicles, and shuttle vehicles. These are used in research groups and close cooperation with the KIT to put theoretical findings into practice.

Highlight Projects

Intelligent Transportation Systems and Logistics

CeCaS

Supercomputing Platform for Highly Automated Vehicles

MINGA

Munich’s Automated Public Transport with Ridepooling, Solo Bus and Bus Platoons

RepliCar

Reference sensor platform for high-precision sensor validation for automated driving

KI4BoardNet

Next-generation distributed, continuously learning onboard power management system

Shuttle2X

Safe use of automated shuttle vehicles in urban traffic through supporting infrastructure networking

DPNB

Broker for dynamic production networks

ANYMOS

Competence Cluster Anonymization for Interconnected Mobility Systems

LieferBotNet

An infrastructure for connected urban transportation

All research projects