CTS (Cybernetic Transportation System) is a new form of public transport, which bridges the gap between private cars and public transport. Public, friendly vehicles are available on demand to anyone anywhere in a specific zone where private car access is limited. The basic advantages are better mobility better environment less energy more safety.

What are CybercCars?

CyberCars are road vehicles with fully automated driving capabilities. A fleet of such vehicles forms a transportation system, for passengers or goods, on a network of roads with on-demand and door-to-door capability. The fleet of cars is under control of a central management system in order to meet particular demands in a particular environment. At the initial stages, CyberCars are designed for short trips at low speed in an urban environment or in private grounds. In the long term, CyberCars could also run autonomously at high speed on dedicated tracks. With the development of the CyberCar infrastructures, private cars with fully autonomous driving capabilities could also be allowed on these infrastructures while maintaining their manual mode on standard roads. CyberCars are members of the general family of people movers and close to PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) but they offer the advantage of being able to run on any ground infrastructure, which means they are cheaper and more flexible.

What are the objectives of the CyberCars/CyberMove program?

The objectives of the CyberCars/CyberMove programs are to improve the attractivity and quality of life in cities by reducing the use and the parking needs of traditional cars and by offering a cleaner and safer transportation mode available to everyone including people who cannot drive.

What communication technologies are used for CyberCars?

Various communication schemes have been used and are now operational on various systems: GSM and GPRS mostly for communicating with the users through their mobile phones, and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) for the communication between vehicles and infrastructure. High bandwidth communication is needed in case of transfer of images, for example for remote control of the vehicles.

How does one call for a CyberCar vehicle?

Human machine interfaces (HMI) are a key element for the ease of use of the system and hence for its acceptability. Various developments have been done in the Project to work on simple but powerful interfaces inside or outside of the vehicle. It has been now accepted that the most convenient way to request the vehicles is either through simple call buttons (such as for elevators), or when this is not possible due to a very large number of pick-up points, through a mobile phone. More advanced interfaces have also been explored in the context of another European Project: OZONE, which develops the concept of "ambient intelligence". The Cybercars are used in this project as a test case.

During the Project, the industrial companies have developed management software based on a centralized system and communications. These systems now offer a very flexible operation and can implement a demand responsive transportation system
with minimum waiting times and low number of vehicles. At the research level, new techniques have been developed for the optimization of large-scale systems.

CyberCars offer the unique opportunity to turn away from internal combustion engines and local pollutions and noise in the cities. All the CyberCars available now run on batteries and electric motors. Due to the low energy capacity of the batteries, the management of the energy is crucial for an efficient operation of the system. Various optimization algorithms have been developed in the Project for the optimum battery capacity and recharging strategy. Also, techniques for automatic recharging and for energy transfer through induction have been developed and tested.

CyberCars are precursors of drive-by-wire vehicles since acceleration, braking, and steering must be controlled by computers. During the Project, some participants have developed new hardware for the safe implementation of these functions. However, the main focus has been on the development of safe software. To reach a high level of safety in a complex computer environment, often with distributed processing, a new tool developed by INRIA has been extensively used and validated by several partners. It is the SynDEx approach which allows the development and certification of distributed real time software (see http://wwwrocq.inria.fr/syndex/)

Obstacle avoidance is the main difficulty in the deployment of CyberCars. Numerous research works has been carried out in this domain by many of the partners. Systems based on scanning laser rangefinders associated with ultra-sounds and sensing bumpers are now available on industrial vehicles. These sensors are associated with advanced control software to anticipate potential collision while eliminating obstacles, which are not on the path of the vehicles. Other collision avoidance techniques based on radar and on vision have been researched. They are not yet certified but offer great promise for lowering the cost and improving the performance. These researches are conducted in close cooperation with the automobile industry, which is looking for similar devices for avoiding vulnerable users in urban environments.

The first automated vehicles used an expensive infrastructure-based approach with electric wires or transponders. During the project, Frog has developed a new technique based on deadreckoning associated with relocalisation on magnets widely spaced and hence implemented at low cost. This technique allows for fine-tuning the exact path of the vehicles and is available on the ParkShuttle II. Other techniques based on localization by laser of natural features in the environments and on vision have been demonstrated. These techniques, which require no modification of the environment, are still to be industrialized. Advanced techniques for path generation in complex and dynamic environments have also been explored successfully.

Platooning techniques are needed for the operation of several vehicles closely spaced. The first vehicle of this platoon may or may not be automatic depending on the application. Two techniques have been developed in the Project. On relies on the scanning laser sensor used for obstacle avoidance and the other is based on the development of a linear camera using low cost components. Both approaches give good results but the second one has the potential for very low gap and high-speed operation.

In close cooperation with the cities, CyberMove is evaluating the impact on
12 sites covering a large set of applications such as private resort, campus or city centre applications. In particular, CyberMove is evaluating their potential to move towards sustainability and increase their attractiveness. These test cities are:
- Lausanne / Ouchy
- Nancy
- Lausanne / Crissier
- Copenhaguen
- Antibes
- Rotterdam / Rivium
- Lausanne / EPFL
- Biarritz
- Coimbra
- La Rochelle
- Haifa

CyberCars provide a great alternative to regular public transport, providing low and reliable waiting time even in low demand area. It attracts more passengers than a conventional public transport system and it is more environmental friendly than conventional transport systems.

CyberCars prove to be efficient mostly for:
• Park and ride service
• Short distance (~1 km) link between other modes
• Tourist places
• It can provide transport for wide areas but it needs dedicated infrastructures
• It proved to be efficient in low and medium demand areas of city peripheries

For a CyberMove system to be successful it should be integrated into the urban design and should be integrated with transport strategies that include ad-hoc policy measures. Detailed transport studies are necessary before and during the installation to design and install the CyberMove correctly and to build consensus among users.

• To think to the CTS just as an experiment. It needs to be conceived as a full transport service.
• To interface it with very low quality public transport services
• To install it without supporting it with proper policies and consensus building campaigns

• It has a lower investment cost per kilometer than a metro or a tramway
• It has much lower operating costs than a metro or a tramway
• It has lower operating cost than a bus service
• It needs, until today, higher investment costs than a bus service

• In some of the sites, if helped by ad-hoc policies, the CTS proved to be even able to repay the initial investment.
• In most of the sites the CTS proved to be more socio-economically viable than the actual conventional transport system

In the long term, CyberCars could also run autonomously at high speed on dedicated tracks. With the development of the CTS infrastructures, private cars with fully autonomous driving capabilities could also be allowed on these infrastructures while maintaining their manual mode on standard roads.

Compared to traditional transportation systems which often rely on heavy material infrastructure such as rails or heavy road infrastructures, the CyberCars will need only a very light one, often no more than the equivalent of a bicycle path, or even just two small tracks for the wheels. Even with such light infrastructures, high transportation needs can be satisfied just by increasing the number of vehicles when needed.

The CyberCars Consortium, led by INRIA, consists of 14 partners: 7 academic research organizations, experts in transportation technologies, and 7 private industrial companies.

The CyberCars project goal is to develop, test and certify key novel technologies for CyberCar systems, in order to offer a new efficient urban transport. It is closely linked to the CyberMove project which looks at the introduction of CyberCars in several European cities, with the aim to identify and overcome barriers such as technology confidence, habits and customs, landscape scenery, user-friendliness, regulations, etc.

More information on the CyberCars Project can be found at www.cybercars.org and more information about the CyberMove project can be found ate www.cybermove.org.

CyberCars are designed for short trips at low speed in an urban environment or in private grounds. For the long-term, CyberCars would operate on a larger network, (possibly in dual mode) driving in mixed traffic at higher speed.