“We want to find out what impact the new technology has on the drivers. The study focuses on the neurophysiological and psychosocial levels,” explained Prof. Dr. Christian T. Haas, head of the Institute for Complex Health Research at Hochschule Fresenius. “The results of the study at the human-machine interface will be fed back directly into developing the technology.”
BOTH MAN AND SCHENKER aim to see how this new technology is accepted by professional drivers. A parallel study will involve analysis of the test drive records in terms of the platoons’ interaction with other traffic participants: How do the drivers cope with the use of this new technology? How can the driver’s work be extended or adjusted and what changes will this entail for vocational education and training? This data will also help them to assess what other activities the driver in the second truck would be permitted to perform during autonomous driving phases.
The on-highway trials offer the opportunity to make more general findings in terms of digitalizing working conditions and will thus serve as a forerunner for other projects.
If there’s anybody out there who doesn’t know the basics of platooning, it’s a system in which at least two trucks on a highway can travel in very close succession with the help of electronic control systems. All vehicles in the platoon are linked to each other by an electronic ‘towbar’ that uses ‘car-to-car communication’ where the truck in front sets the speed and direction. There can be as many trucks in such a ‘train’ as the electronic communication can reach, in theory, though so far three or four vehicles seems to be the practical maximum. The key objective is to ensure fuel savings for the entire platoon through slipstreaming.
“Autonomous and networked driving will fundamentally change road haulage,” said Schenker’s chief operating officer, Ewald Kaiser. “This project will focus on testing platooning for the first time in daily logistics operations. So we’re excited that we can now integrate the vehicles into the operational test runs.”
THE COMPANY IS INTERESTED in learning how to draw up the optimum platooning deployment plan within its own logistics processes. For instance, how will logistics centers have to be designed and equipped in future in order to load and unload networked truck convoys as quickly as possible?
“We have already proved that platooning technology works in various predecessor projects, such as the European Truck Platooning Challenge in 2016. Adapting this technology to the real everyday conditions of the logistics sector is the challenge we are now tackling,” added Dr. Frederik Zohm, member of the management board for research and development at MAN.
The company has conducted other such tests, namely the ‘Konvoi’ research project between 2005 and 2009, testing platoons of up to four vehicles.
Last week’s truck handover signals the start of preparations for the actual road tests, after months spent producing the test vehicles and equipping them with the additional components required for platooning. The focus is now on intensive training of the drivers and on facilitating integration with Schenker’s logistics operations.
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Hyliion's test partners: PAM, Mesilla Valley, and Ryder |
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INDIVIDUAL TWO-TRUCK PLATOON runs are planned on the A9 starting in April. To begin with, the trucks will be operating without loads to investigate driving conditions in the daily flow of traffic, and to train the drivers involved in the project. The drivers will receive intensive theoretical and practical training from the specialists at MAN ProfiDrive, the truck-maker’s in-house ‘school’. This will include practice on a driving simulator.
Significantly, Hochschule Fresenius scientists will be accompanying the drivers and documenting their experiences.
Once the intensive training phase has been completed, there will be weekly and then daily test runs. These will be extended to include regular operations with actual cargo during the course of 2018. The platoons will then be deployed up to three times daily between DB Schenker logistics centers in Munich and Nuremberg. In 2019 a second pilot project will be rolled out to examine autonomous driving for use in terminal operations.
I’ll be watching this one closely.
HAVE YOU HEARD OF HYLIION? Probably not, but it’s an intriguing little company with a mighty interesting product that instantly turns long-haul tractors into electric hybrids with up to a claimed 30% fuel and emissions savings. It’s retrofittable. Frankly, I can’t figure out why I haven’t written about this three-year-old outfit before now because it’s a pretty cool idea. It’s the brainchild of some mechanical engineers with no knowledge of trucks at the outset but who wondered why there were hybrid cars but not hybrid big rigs.
Hyliion, based in Pittsburgh, PA, launched its ‘6X4HE’ electrified axle last fall. Easily attached to the truck frame, it’s a self-contained system that replaces a 6×2 truck’s non-driven dead axle or is added to a 4×2 truck, turning either into a 6×4. Existing 6×4 tractors can be converted by removing one mechanically driven axle and replacing it with a Hyliion axle. The system includes the electrically motorized axle, lithium-ion battery pack, an auxiliary power unit (APU), and electronic controls. It adds about 800 lb to the weight of the truck.
Fuel savings of up to 30% are a blend of three technologies, the company says: 15% from the electric hybrid system, 12% from the APU that can be run off the battery pack and reduce or eliminate idling, and 3% from aerodynamics.
It’s not just an idea, it’s already available for order.
INITIAL TESTING WAS DONE on trucks run by Mesilla Valley Transportation, PAM Transport, and Ryder. They all seem to like it.
“Innovation in fuel savings is nothing new to Mesilla Valley Trucking, but Hyliion’s system is the only thing we’ve seen that can make such a big impact,” says Royal Jones, Mesilla’s CEO.
Regenerative braking captures power when slowing down, then electric power is applied when the load demands it, to keep the diesel engine at its most efficient rpm. The APU leverages Hyliion’s proprietary cooling system and battery to deliver 18,000 BTUs for 10 hours on a single charge. In addition, two outlets provide electricity in the cab. The 6X4HE is also shore-power enabled.
In 2016 Hyliion first entered the scene with a similar trailer-based product, calling it the ‘Intelligent Electric Axle’. The axle includes a motor/generator that runs through a standard differential. It captures kinetic energy as the truck coasts or brakes, converts it to electricity that’s stored in lithium-ion batteries, then sends the energy back to the axle to help launch a truck or push it up a hill. Electronic controls run the process.
The system is independent of the tractor and the driver does nothing to make it operate except making sure it’s switched on. No training is required.
THE POWERED AXLE REPLACES a “passive” axle on a standard trailer tandem, and promises big fuel savings – 10 to 20% from hybrid-powered operation alone. Again, Hyliion says another 10% or more in fuel can be saved if the batteries are used as an auxiliary power unit to run heating, cooling, and other accessories in a tractor sleeper during rest breaks, or by running the reefer unit, liftgate, or other equipment on a trailer.
Kim Kasee, vice president of marketing for Hyliion, told my colleague, HDT editor Deborah Lockridge, that the key to the performance of the Hyliion 6X4HE system is its computer brain. She explained that the Hyliion controls are a “passive listener” on the vehicle’s CANBUS. “So we can see what they’re doing, but we don’t undo what they’re doing.”
The system, Kasee said, looks at how much energy it has stored and at the nature of the road ahead, then determines how to take that energy and apply it for the best fuel savings.
“If you have a road that’s up and down and up and down with smaller inclinations and declinations, then it’s pretty simple how we drive the energy into the motor and create energy on the downhill side to replenish that. If it’s a steeper hill, like a mountain, it applies it a little bit differently to try to keep that [diesel] engine in the sweet spot.”
In fact, she said, on some steep inclines the system may not stay on during the entire incline. In order to be able to power up long mountainous grades, it would have required a larger battery that would reduce the available cargo payload too much. “So it’s more of an assist than a pure power play.”
The 6X4HE has a separate three-year warranty that doesn’t affect the manufacturer’s warranty.
THE CANADIAN FLEET MAINTENANCE SUMMIT happens on April 18, the day before our Truck World Show opens at the International Centre near Toronto Pearson Airport. A major success back in 2016, with some 237 attendees and great reviews after the fact, this will be the second of what is now definitely an annual event. It’s a joint effort between Newcom Media, publisher of Today’s Trucking, and the PIT Group.
A similar one-day conference was held in Montreal last year in advance of our Quebec show, Expocam, and it will run again in 2019.
While the agenda hasn’t yet been cast in stone for the April conference, I can tell you that I’ll be moderating a panel discussion on data collection and analysis. Among the speakers will be Isaac Instruments president Jacques DeLarochellière. Another major session will deal with fuel economy. Expert keynote speakers include Fred Andersky of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems to talk about advanced safety technologies. And the closing keynote speech of the day will have Julie Furber, director of electrification at Cummins, analyzing the onslaught of enthusiasm for electric trucks and looking at their future.
It will be a compact but information-rich day, well worth your time, and I hope to see you there. You can register here.
THE CVSA BRAKE SAFETY SYMPOSIUM will take place on May 15-16, 2018, in Schaumburg, Illinois, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center. The two-day program looks informative, covering braking and brake-related technologies, regulations, inspection procedures, tools and maintenance concepts. Registration will open in February 2018. Go here for details.
The first plenary session, ‘Brake Regulations 101’, will provide an overview of how manufacturing standards, motor carrier regulations, North American Standard Inspection Procedures and the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria all function to help ensure safe and reliable brake system performance. Attendees will be in a study group, all of which will rotate though the same sessions, as described in the schedule below.
Among many other sessions, one gets the title, ‘Common Brake Violations’ and will explore common brake system issues found during roadside inspections. This will include but is not limited to brakes-out-of-adjustment, ABS lamps, air system leaks, air hose and tubing violations and more.
Registration fees range from US$450 up to US$650. A small discount applies if you register before April 30.
THIS NEWSLETTER IS PUBLISHED every two weeks by Newcom Media. For the most part it’s a heads-up notice about what’s going on with trucking technology. I also write here about interesting products that may not have had the ‘air play’ they deserved within the last few months, and maybe about issues that warrant attention in my occasionally humble opinion.
I should remind you that, with the odd exception, I don’t endorse any of the products I write about in this e-newsletter, nor do I have the resources to test them except on rare occasions. What you’re getting is reasonably well educated opinion based on more than 39 years in trucking.
If you have comments of whatever sort about The Lockwood Report, or maybe you’ve tried a gizmo I should know about, please contact me at rolf@newcom.ca
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