Issue 03/11 - Siemens Mobility

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Trends & Events Partners & Projects Added safety and convenience Small signal heads n Dedicated traffic lights for pedestrians and cyclists help improve the safety at traffic intersections, with separate green and red phases for each of these groups providing additional optimization potential. As an especially practical solution for implementing such signalization measures, Siemens offers new types of small signal heads, which are also very useful as subsidiary or supplementary signal heads for special traffic situations. Available in a wide range of versions based on different technologies An electric future E-car sharing system launched n In early September, Siemens AG added twelve electric cars based on the Opel Agila model to its e-car fleet in Berlin, which had become operational about ten months before as part of the 4-S (“For sustain electromobility”) project. In future, the additional “shared” e-cars will be available to more than 100 employees for business-related trips within the German capital. The e-car sharing system consists of a coordinated range of integrated solutions to help meet the requirements of modern electro-mobility. The intelligently networked and fully dynamic management systems for vehicle fleet, parking space and environmental zones cover also the required recharging inf ra structure for the e-cars. Every car is equipped with a mobile computer and voltages and offering a selection of symbols and signal colors, the small signal heads can be tailored to the requirements of any application. The LED versions provide the greatest benefits because they consume only a fraction of the energy needed by conventional signal heads, require next to no maintenance and no replacement at all of their extremely longlasting LED light sources. For maximum safety and reliability, an electronic monitoring circuit in every LED light source permanently supervises the LEDs‘ current and On-board units provide the e-car test drivers with important information (on-board unit) that provides information on booking times, charging status and remaining cruising range. In addition, an integrated satnav system (GPS) and a permanent communication link with a control and information center provides the driver with directions to the nearest available parking space with recharging facility, if desired. The secured data link of the on-board unit enables the automatic billing of rental and parking fees as well as recharging costs. The experiences gathered in the pilot fleet project will provide essential insights into how to optimize the networking of recharging infrastructure, fleet and parking management systems to make urban mobility more efficient and reduce its environmental impact in particular. « Separate traffic signs for cyclists voltage levels. If the actual values are below or above the pre-set thresholds, the input current is interrupted immediately (signal protection).Of course, the new small signal heads from Siemens are fully compatible with the Sitraffic Cx00V, Cx40V and Cx40ES controller families as well as with the signal monitoring systems of these controllers. « The new e-car sharing system was discussed at the IAA, too Future comes as standard International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt/Main n At this year’s IAA, exhibitors dedicated around 10 percent of overall exhibition space to various aspects of electric mobility. For instance on the “Boulevard of the Future“ at the booth of Siemens AG – a showcase of the company’s comprehensive activities in the area of electric mobility. The Siemens range not only includes components for electric drives, power electronics and charging technology, but also concepts for a practical charging infrastructure and tailored software solutions for the development and production of electric vehicles. As a globally leading provider of industrial software and automation technology, Siemens is excellently positioned to help manufacturers optimize the production of vehicles, components and batteries and thus to cut the overall production costs of electric vehicles. « The city of tomorrow London n More than 100,000 visitors are expected to flock every year to the Centre for Urban Sustainability that Siemens AG is currently building in the Green Enterprise District of the British capital. With the new center of competence, Siemens wants to provide municipal decision-makers, planners, architects and also the general public with a comprehensive source of information on technologies, strategies and concepts for more sustainability and higher quality of life in tomorrow’s cities. Besides a fascinating and partially interactive look into the future of urban life on close to 2000 sqm of exhibition space, the center will offer spacious conference and research facilities as well as offices. The building itself will be a showcase of sustainability and a first-hand demonstration of eco-friendly ways of using water and energy. Nature and the special character of the site at the London docks provided the inspiration for the crystal-shaped design. Various transparent and reflecting materials will capture the light in a multitude of ways, adding dynamism to the architectural geometry. The Centre for Urban Sustainability, where the mobility of the future is going to play a major role, is due to be open to the public by the spring of 2012. « Safety is a priority in the construction of the Gotthard base tunnel The Centre for Urban Sustainability is scheduled to open its doors in the spring of 2012 Fresh breeze Luzern n For the Gotthard base tunnel, the largest tunnel ventilation system ever will be implemented. It comprises two ventilation centers dividing the railway tunnel into three sections of nearly the same length. In each center, four ventilators will control fresh air supply during ordinary tunnel operation. In case one section is temporarily blocked for maintenance or other reasons, they will continue to feed this part. If a fire breaks out, the ventilation centers ensure the rapid evacuation of smoke from the tunnel and keep the escape routes clear. As a special challenge, the design of the system had to take account of the strong pressure surges caused by the high speed of the trains passing through the tunnel. What makes the ventilators supplied by the Siemens company TLT Turbo especially suitable for this application is their reliably stable operating range, as demonstrated in the corresponding tests in another part of the project. After completion in 2016, the Gotthard base tunnel will be the world’s longest tunnel with an overall length of 57 km. For its construction, more than 28 million tons of rock had to be moved. The costs for this structure of the century will total around € 8 billion. « 18 its magazine 3/2011 3/2011 its magazine 19
Know-how & Research A spirit guide Project Braindriver n This story has a hint of Hollywood about it. It’s showing now in the capital of Germany and it’s all about science, not fiction. Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin have managed to control a vehicle via a man-machine interface using the power of thought alone. In the dream factories of the cinema, the future is already old news. As early as 1985, the US thriller “Firefox” featured Clint Eastwood, sharing the lead with an experimental jet fighter that received and converted flight instructions in the form of brain waves. Fourteen years later the Oscar-laden blockbuster “The Matrix” also gave center stage to a computer that was literally mind-controlled. Has the fiction now actually been stripped away, leaving us with just science? That is pretty much the case. In the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence at Freie Universität Berlin chaired by Professor Dr. Raúl Rojas, the AutoNOMOS team led in turn by Tinosch Ganjineh has been focusing on the development of fully autonomous vehicles since 2006. They are aiming for a vehicle that can independently assess everyday traffic conditions and operate and move about without human assistance. Two vehicles were built for this purpose, including the prototype “Made- InGermany,” a VW Passat that is equipped with cam eras, laser scanners, radar sensors, a high-precision GPS and a link to the vehicle network (CAN). In the scope of this pro ject, AutoNOMOS is also working on user interfaces between humans and machines. The visible results of their efforts include an iPhone-based vehicle control system, a more complex control and “MadeInGermany” prototype: Different thoughts generate different time series sensor monitoring system using an iPad, and an optical control that functions using a pupil tracking system. From that point it was just a small step to the spectacular project that caused such a stir recently when it was announced by an AutoNOMOS research group headed by professor Rojas. Using a so-called Brain Computer Interface (BCI), the scientists succeeded in enabling human test subjects to control the experimental “MadeInGermany” car by the power of their thoughts alone. The test driver is required to don a skull cap with 16 electrical sensors. Following EEG principles, the sensor positions correspond to particular regions on the head where voltages produced by local brain activity can be measured. When the test subject concentrates on a previously defined thought pattern, for example a color or an object, the sensors detect voltage variations in the micro- to millivolt range which, under ideal conditions, result in a time series that can be identified by a computer using a 16-dimensional voltage vector. Different thoughts generate different time series for the computer to map later into different classes. To make the computer allocate different time series to different classes – in this case the commands “left, right, forward, reverse” – the test subjects have to “teach” their thought patterns to the computer. For this learning process there is a piece of software that displays a cube and an activation indicator to give status messages about the signals that are detected. If the person’s thoughts turn to a category that belongs in the “left” class and if the thought is correctly identified, the cube moves to the left. This makes it possible to distinguish up to five classes. Besides the four classes in which a defined thought corresponds to a defined direction, there is a null class in which none of the calibrated thoughts are registered and which therefore has no impact on changes to direction of travel or speed. The results of the thought classification are then transferred via Ethernet to the control computer in the autonomous vehicle. To convert the registered commands to actual car control, the AutoNOMOS team apply two different control programs: • In variant 1 (“semi-autonomy”), the vehicle travels auton omously along the road and only requests a thought-generated directional decision at intersections or motorway exits. • In variant 2, so-called “free driving”, the human can control the vehicle entirely by thoughts alone. The four commands “left, right, forward, reverse” are mapped to correspond with steering directions and with an increase or decrease in speed. Because concentration on defined thoughts can be very taxing for humans and often only functions with a time lag of one to three seconds, the FU Berlin researchers have so far only carried out their “free driving” tests under conditions of a feasibility study on a fenced-off terrain. There’s another reason why from today’s perspectives variant 1 looks very much more appropriate for practical purposes. Even with the latest BCI hardware, only a small percentage of test subjects achieved genuinely reliable control of the vehicle using the 4+1 thought classification. « In the side-view mirror The big plan What would we be today without visions and great plans! All the same, most Utopias soon reach their sell-by date. And that’s when a pragmatic view of the details can be helpful. Since time immemorial, thought- leaders and visionary planners have designed new cities and reshaped the old. Sometimes the aim was to improve the world and to serve mankind, but more often it was to satisfy a leader’s ostentatious ends or to meet strategic considerations. More recently the reasons have also included the creation of more space for the automobile. In 1925 at the Paris Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, the architect and urban planner Le Corbusier presented a Utopian design called “Plan Voisin.” Financed by the car and aircraft maker Gabriel Voisin, it foresaw the demolition of vast areas of central Paris to make way for wider streets and a gigantic skyscraper district. Parisians failed to see the joke. But there was no stopping Le Corbusier: “Where are all those cars speeding to? The center!” he crowed. “In the center there are no open spaces for driving on. They must be created. The center must be torn down!” All the same, 20 years later, urban planners took up the idea once more, drove naked concrete channels through the center and created a city fit for the car. The opposition had been on the case for some time. Austrian exile Victor Gruen declared “Cars buy nothing” and invented the shopping mall for pedestrians. In his shopping center opened in Detroit in 1952, visitors could not merely shop, but also go to the theater, stroll in green spaces and simply enjoy themselves. The warmth of the idea’s reception meant that access roads were clogged with more and more cars, so later he planned his malls outside the cities, on greenfield sites. What’s the legacy of all that today? Too many cars in the city – and in our countryside too. Literary giant Friedrich Dürrenmatt hits the mark: “The more humans advance with a plan, the more effectively they can be thwarted by chance.” So rather than bold plans, should we try bean-counting? The American mathematician Charles Komanoff has applied himself to that very thing. For several years his work has been devoted to accurate measurements of Manhattan’s traffic. Using his PC spreadsheet he inputs taxi waiting times, subway journey times and passenger numbers, the bridge authority’s user figures and much much more, then gives the public free access to the data on the Web. Not exactly a visionary idea. Traffic planners find it brilliant: at long last, facts instead of bold ideas! Sometimes the greatest progress is made by simply adding one plus one. « 20 its magazine 3/2011 3/2011 its magazine 21
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Issue 03/11 - Siemens Mobility

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