FINLAND: The driverless movement of a tram around the Tampere tramway’s depot has been demonstrated, with Škoda Group saying its ’marks a significant step towards full autonomy’.
The Škoda ForCity Smart Artic X34 tram was set tasks remotely. It then moved around the depot without intervention, including through the vehicle washer.
It was able to react to obstacles on the track using an anti-collision system based on LiDAR, cameras, maps and odometry which Škoda has developed specifically for trams and tested in Tampere.
Development of the technology is being facilitated by the Lyyli Living Lab incubator, hosted by tramway operator Tampereen Ratikka. This brings together the city council, Business Tampere, Škoda and the University of Tampere to create a light rail experimentation, testing and marketing environment. Škoda is also working on similar activities in Plzeň.
The Tampere trials make use of the first features of Škoda’s Smart Depot vision to integrate existing and new technologies into a coherent ecosystem for automating routine processes. This would allow a tram driver to alight from the vehicle on arrival at the depot, with the tram then autonomously identifying and moving to an appropriate stabling point.
The aim is to minimise human error, optimise operations and ultimately reduce costs by reducing the need for manual intervention.
‘Last year we presented the Smart Depot vision’, said Škoda’s Digital Managing Director Jiří Liberda on July 18. ’We were able to turn the vision into reality in just one year.
‘The successful demonstration of automatic movement and its response in the Smart Depot ecosystem is another step on the road to a fully autonomous tram.’
