Autonomous driving
"VanAssist": the delivery vehicle of the future?
By 2025, the number of parcels transported in Germany each year is expected to increase by 40 percent to around 5.7 billion. This is why parcel delivery companies such as dpd are actively working on sustainable delivery concepts. As part of the VanAssist cooperation project, an autonomous electric delivery vehicle has been developed. Tests with the VanAssist vehicle in daily road traffic are already planned.
A shortage of skilled workers, increasing traffic density and emissions in conurbations: the VanAssist cooperation project between dpd and partners from science and industry has set itself the goal of helping to solve these problems using autonomous delivery vehicles.
Rethinking route planning
The development of the autonomous vehicle focused on the constantly increasing demands on the last mile of parcel delivery. In particular, the routes and routes of a parcel tour were to be optimized. Thanks to intelligent navigation software, the test vehicle is able to autonomously navigate to stops and react to changes in road traffic in real time. "We have realized that we need to fundamentally rethink our route planning. In future it will not only be relevant to which address we deliver a parcel, but also where we can identify nearby stops for this parcel and store them in the system," explains Gerd Seber, Group Manager City Logistics & Sustainability at DPD Germany.
Rendezvous mode: the delivery driver gets in
The VanAssist test vehicle operates in rendezvous mode: the vehicle should be able to cover the distance from the depot to the delivery area autonomously. The delivery driver only gets into the vehicle at a predefined meeting point. Whenever the delivery person then delivers a parcel, the vehicle automatically heads for the next predefined stop. This means that the van always waits for the delivery person exactly where they need the next parcel or to be taken to the next address. If the planned stopping point is not available, the vehicle uses an eSmartphone app to inform the delivery person at which alternative point it will be waiting for them. The app control also makes it possible to flexibly adapt delivery routes as required. Indoor navigation has also been integrated to guide the delivery driver quickly to the delivery point to be reached in large office or industrial complexes inside the building.
After the test vehicle has so far been used on a university test site, the next step is for it to be used on the road in a practical test.
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