Renske Martijnse-Hartikka

In 2019, the FABULOS project will organise six webinar sessions on robot bus topics introducing basic concepts, specific terminology and technologies commonly encountered in the field of automated mobility. The primary target groups are cities and other procuring authorities.

A new era of transportation
Increasingly many cities and public transport authorities are confronted with mobility innovations. Autonomous public transport is one of the “hot topics” that will radically change the urban mobility scene within the next decade. Several European cities have already gained experience with automated shuttle buses and many other cities have an interest in doing so. However, automated shuttles are not yet finished products and not ready for cost effective operation. Therefore, pilots in cities are critical to enable the development of the autonomous vehicles and their related systems.

However, employees at municipalities or other procuring entities often do not have in-depth knowledge regarding these novel technologies. Knowing all details is not always necessary, but when taking part in a pilot or procurement for (shared) autonomous mobility, it is essential to be aware of the fundamentals on, for example, sensors, positioning, cyber threats and charging. To bridge the knowledge gap, the FABULOS project launches the FABULOS Academy.

Six webinar topics
The FABULOS Consortium hosts six one-hour webinars in 2019. In case of popular demand on certain topic, a separate in-depth session can be organised. Below are the confirmed webinars (see https://fabulos.eu/fabulos-academy-2019/ for event details and registration form) as well as the foreseen topics:

1. Properties of electric vehicles (14 February 2019)
2. Regulatory aspects of autonomous mobility (16 April 2019)
3. Wireless communication technologies
4. Robot bus localisation (ie. positioning)
5. Sensors of robot buses and sensor fusion
6. Cyber threats and threat mitigation

FABULOS (Future Automated Bus Urban Level Operation System) is a European research and development project to establish and deliver a systemic proof-of-concept for automated last mile public transport as part of the existing transport system of urban areas, based on the use of self-driving minibuses. The FABULOS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and runs from 1 January 2018 until 31 December 2020. The FABULOS project has partners in Estonia, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal. The six procuring partners use Pre-Commercial Procurement as a tool to co-create an innovative solution together with multiple companies. Contracts have been signed in December 2018 with 5 consortia. The first Phase (feasibility study) starts in January 2019. Actual piloting of fleets of robot buses takes place in all 6 partner cities from Spring 2002 onwards.
Most recent press release: https://fabulos.eu/five-consortia-awarded-contracts-in-fabulos-pre-commercial-procurement/

The FABULOS consortium has finalised the evaluation of the tenders in December 2018 and has awarded five consortia with contracts. The aim of these contracts is to facilitate procurement of R&D work to develop systems capable of operating fleets of automated minibuses. As a first step towards this goal, each consortium will conduct a feasibility study of proposed solutions and technologies.

After the closing of the FABULOS request for tenders on 31 October 2018, the tenders were assessed by the Technical Evaluation Committee. In addition to commercial feasibility and project management, nine functional criteria and three non-functional criteria were used. The functional criteria range from fleet management and remote operation and all the way to requirements for vehicle capabilities in mixed traffic. Societal and legal aspects form elements of the non-functional criteria. The fleet is expected to drive in mixed traffic, at urban speeds, in nearly in all weather conditions and without a conductor on board.

“We were positively surprised by the high quality of tenders received and were pleased to discover so many exceptional solutions to the FABULOS challenge. It will be very exciting to see these proposed solutions become a reality by the end of 2020,” summarises Technical Chair of the Evaluation Committee Oscar Nissin, from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Five European consortia have succeeded in the first stage of the competition. In total, 16 companies from six European countries formed consortia as follows:

• The FVF Consortium consisting of three Finnish partners: Fortum Power and Heat Oy, Fleetonomy.ai Oy and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
• The Kompai-Actia Consortium consisting of two French companies: Kompaï Robotics and Actia Automobile.
• The Mobile Civitatem Consortium consisting of four partners from Estonia: Modern Mobility Oü, Tallinn University of Technology, Silberauto Eesti AS and Ecofleet Eesti Oü. The fifth member of the consortium is the Danish company Autonomous Mobility A/S.
• The Saga Consortium consisting of four Norwegian partners: Halogen AS, Forus PRT AS, Spare Labs Inc. and Ramboll Management Consulting AS.
• The Sensible 4 – Shotl Consortium consisting of two partners: Sensible 4 from Finland and Shotl from Spain.

The total FABULOS procurement budget is around 5,500,000 euros (incl. VAT). The maximum budget for individual suppliers involved in all three phases is over 1,000,000 euros (incl. VAT).