MAN Truck & Bus
Terminal 4.0: Test run with automated truck
Automatically from road to rail Thanks to ANITA, an automated truck will handle container handling at the DUSS terminal in Ulm Dornstadt all by itself in the future.
The numbers are impressive: a container is moved up to 600 times a day at the 90,000 square metre DB Intermodal Services depot in the north of Ulm; between 50 and 60 times a day a truck transports one of the containers between the depot and the neighbouring terminal operated by DUSS (Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft Schiene-Straße mbH) via a just under a kilometer short section of public road. Three 330-ton and 25-metre high gantry cranes at the terminal, travelling along a 700-metre long crane runway, transfer the containers onto trains. There are four tracks and four sidings here where Deutsche Bahn organises the transshipment – and this will increase: combined traffic is one of the strongest growth markets in the entire freight transport sector. Over the coming years, the aim in Ulm Dornstadt will therefore be to create a new module with automated cranes.
Delivery traffic in the depot and at the terminal involves many paper-based processes, a short hub-to-hub destination between the two locations and an innovative environment, yet it faces the future prospect of reaching its limits given the existing infrastructure: but there is huge potential for greater efficiency and flexibility in Dornstadt. And that is precisely the reason why the ANITA participants chose it as the ideal setting for their trials (ANITA stands for “Autonome Innovation im Terminalablauf” – Autonomous Innovation in Terminal Operations). The ANITA participants are MAN Truck & Bus, Deutsche Bahn, Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and Götting KG. Since July 2020, the partners have been working on this 39-month pilot project funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Its objective is to automate the transshipment between transport modes and to take the next step towards automated hub-to-hub traffic.
Extensive nationwide analyses
The initial task was to record and digitally map the existing infrastructure and all interfaces, so that in future both truck and terminal will be able to communicate with each other. A complex undertaking that Fresenius University of Applied Sciences has now completed. The researchers spent around a year capturing the tacit knowledge. This involved observing and describing the processes relating to both people and machines, analysing documents and regulations and conducting interviews with truck and reach stacker drivers, dispatchers and freight forwarders on site. “This tacit knowledge involves established and proven rules that aren’t written down anywhere – such as a nod of the head as a signal between truck driver and crane operator or other spontaneous, human decisions”, explains Professor Christian T. Haas, head of the Institute for Complex Systems Research at Fresenius University of Applied Sciences. “We need to understand such rules so that we can subsequently programme them into the truck as an algorithm.”
/
Complex process Currently, the truck driver has to go through many stations and leave his vehicle several times before he can bring a container from the DB Intermodal Services depot to the neighbouring DUSS terminal.
/
Coming soon digitally The twistlocks are open, the driver gets out and signals to the reach truck driver at the DB Intermodal Services depot that he can now unload the container.
/
Container depot At DB Intermodal Services' 90,000 square metre depot, a container is moved up to 600 times a day.
/
Unambiguous communication Prof. Dr Christian T. Haas from Fresenius University of Applied Sciences explains: "Unlike humans, an automatic system cannot improvise or bend rules; there must be unambiguous instructions for action for every situation."
/
Faster, more efficient, easier to plan DUSS Managing Director Andreas Schulz hopes that ANITA will contribute to the further development of terminal operations - and increase capacity utilisation.
The analysis was not only conducted in Ulm, but also at other DUSS sites. The ultimate intention is for these algorithms to be transferred to other terminals, ports and industrial facilities where autonomous vehicles will operate. Programming differences must therefore be considered from the start. “Each terminal has its own rules. We have defined generalised functions for all terminals as well as locally applicable, specifying functions”, Haas explains – a major challenge: “Unlike humans, an automated system cannot improvise or bend the rules. It needs a clear instruction for action in every situation.”
Language skills for autonomous trucks
The next step is to transfer the resulting modular circuit diagram into mission planning software. For the first time in such a development process, this will involve the use of Contract Specification Language developed by the company Deon Digital, which is a cooperation partner with Fresenius University of Applied Sciences. MAN and Götting will at the same time use the results to further develop the autonomous truck. Test runs with the automated prototype vehicle are planned for the second half of 2022; always with a safety driver on board.
MAN has already conducted trials with driverless trucks at the Port of Hamburg. “ANITA enables us to tackle the next level of complexity on our automation roadmap”, is how the head of Advance Electronics Development at MAN Truck & Bus, Andreas Zimmermann, classifies the project in Ulm which involves more external traffic and interaction with the infrastructure. “Here we’ll therefore deploy a truck with similar automation technology as the one used in Hamburg, including numerous lidars, radar sensors and 360-degree cameras, but which has an even higher state of developmental readiness.” A large multidisciplinary team in the MAN Development division has been working on this. “We're also utilising our synergies within the VW Group”, adds Zimmermann. “Our automated truck reflects VW’s automated passenger car technology, just adapted for the truck sector.”
/
Please unload! When it reaches the reach stacker, the container is unloaded at the DB Intermodal Services depot. If the journey continues to the terminal, the reach stacker then loads the truck with another container.
/
360-degree view The automated prototype truck is equipped with numerous cameras, lidar and radar sensors.
/
Roundabout. The truck then moves on from the container depot to the neighbouring DUSS terminal, just under one kilometre away.
/
Crane runway After checking the container, the truck driver is assigned a grid number so that he knows where to position himself on the 700-metre-long crane runway. In the future, this will be automated.
/
Crane work One of the three gantry cranes, each weighing 330 tonnes, picks up the container and loads it onto the rail.
/
In lofty heights The cranes are 25 metres high and are currently each operated manually by a crane operator. In the next few years, a new terminal module is to be built in Ulm Dornstadt with automated cranes that will be controlled from a control centre.
/
Transshipment has taken place! Now the container is on the rail and can be taken to its destination in freight traffic. Four tracks and four sidings are available in the DUSS terminal for transhipment work.
A solution for off-peak periods
The first phase in ANITA is therefore completed. Zimmermann already sees the project as a success: “We at MAN believe it’s important for us to develop new technologies together with our partners, as this enables us to include requirements from practice at an early stage. That’s working perfectly in this case.”
DUSS CEO Andreas Schulz is also satisfied with the interim result. He’s already looking to the future: “The trips between depot and terminal result in cost and effort for us, and then there are also off-peak times at night and on weekends when the drivers aren’t available. So ANITA can make a contribution to increasing the capacity of our existing infrastructure.” Indeed: the time of day is irrelevant when it comes to autonomous vehicles.
