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Ispra

Italy: The JRC of European Commission

Context

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is a European Commission infrastructure that offers science and knowledge services. The centre is one of the six campuses deployed in five countries in the EU.
The Ispra site is in the province of Varese (Italy) located 60 km northwest of Milan. It is the 3rd largest area in Europe after Brussels and Luxembourg.
The site features a daily population of roughly 2.200 Commission staff employees in over 100 buildings, 36 km of internal roads, and all the logistical services that are necessary to run a small town, including energy generation and water provision. All this is in a fenced area of 167 ha providing a safe and secure, yet real environment, in which the JRC applies Italian law standards.
The whole road network can be used for validating safety and drivability of the vehicles thanks to the wide variety of infrastructural elements: from straight road segments to curves, to roundabouts, various types of zebra crossing areas, different layouts of parking areas, different types of asphalt conditions.

In terms of communication and network coverage, the site hosts an internal base-station of a 4G commercial operator. In addition, on site there is availability of both ITS-5G1 and LTE-V2X2.

THE CHALLENGE

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent disruption of daily habits – to which we all have been and are subjected- have underlined the need to develop innovative models of autonomous and multimodal delivery able to support daily activities by increasing efficiency, reducing errors, and decreasing human involvement, especially in most of the standardised and repetitive operations.

Several technological solutions have recently emerged to provide a response to this need: among these are Cargo Bikes and Autonomous Vehicles for last mile delivery. The companies Measy and Yape, respectively, have implemented these technological solutions that now need to be intensively tested in a real-world environment, collecting useful feedbacks that will allow to finalise their product and close the gap to the market.

GREEN-LOG INNOVATION

These changes are driving the adoption of emerging technologies in several stages.
In the near term the electric vehicles (EVs) and the presence of unattended delivery systems are expected to form the first wave of vehicles that transform last-mile delivery.
In three to five years, large, semiautonomous delivery vehicles that follow parcel-delivery staff are expected to be the next trend to be adopted by companies in the parcel-delivery segment.

In five to ten years, ADVs will likely not need to be accompanied by human delivery staff at all and will represent the third wave of widespread tech-enabled parcel delivery.

RELEVANT OUTPUTS

The refined versions of Yape and Measy will be ready to enter the market, providing a service for the last mile delivery that can be implemented in any city requiring it. The adoption of such technologies has a significative impact at different levels:

  • Environment: both Measy and Yape propose green solutions for urban environment, contributing to the reduction of pollution in areas where such a problem is particularly critical.
  • Economy: both Measy and Yape respond to the need of local retailers, providing them with a solution that guarantees maintenance of high-quality standards, while increasing their target customers.
  • Working conditions: Measy has developed an e-Cargo Bike that significantly improves the safety and comfort of riders.

GREEN-LOG PARTNERS INVOLVED

E-NOVIA SPA (E-NOVIA)

UNIVERSITY OF AEGEAN (UAGEAN)

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