The State of Berlin faces the challenge of providing affordable and reliable public transport, even in rapidly growing residential areas.
KIS’M intends to trial and implement such a demand-responsive public transport service using a driverless vehicle at the “Urban Tech Republic” (UTR) innovation campus and subsequently on the adjacent public roads. This will be the first time such a scheme is implemented in accordance with the new law on autonomous driving. Seamless integration with the wider mobility system and traffic management is crucial. The potential technical solutions are to be further developed in collaboration with a broad panel of experts and users. The aim is to develop a socially acceptable vision of the mobility of tomorrow.
The authorisation and implementation of driverless on-demand transport, and the development of safe and reliable procedures for technical supervision, at virtual stops and within the vehicles, are among the key objectives of KIS’M. Through improved networking and cooperation between automated vehicles, as well as with traffic control systems, the aim is to achieve greater road safety even within a mixed traffic system. Using artificial intelligence, more up-to-date and accurate map and traffic information is to be derived from the data collected whilst the vehicles are in operation. Furthermore, KIS’M aims to use the experience gained to develop a strategy for the further deployment of driverless vehicles in the State of Berlin.
Whilst the previous project, Shuttles&Co, tested the use of highly automated minibuses as part of the BVG fleet in the Alt-Tegel neighbourhood, the new KIS’M project aims to investigate the implementation of an automated on-demand transport service as a feeder to public transport, in order to test the introduction of autonomous on-demand services in local public transport in major cities in practice.
Once the requirements for intermodal integration have been defined, the use cases will be specified and implemented across various combinations of public transport, emergency services and mixed automated traffic, using methods of AI-supported cooperative strategic manoeuvre control. The aim is to improve operational processes at the tactical level, and this will be demonstrated through real-world trials.
Project title: KIS'M – Safe travel with AI-connected autonomous shuttles
Duration: 01/2022 to 05/2025
Projekct volume: 9,53 Mio. € (of which €9.52 million is funding from the BMV) Funding allocation for the DLR: €1.5 million
Sponosr: The project will receive funding of €8.72 million from Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV) during its duration from january 2022 to may 2025.
Project coordinator: Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Mobilität, Verbraucher- und Klimaschutz (SenUMVK)
Project participants: To achieve these objectives, the following organisations collaborated: die Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH, der Berliner Agentur für Mobilität(eMO), das Fraunhofer-Institut FOKUS, die Freie Universität Berlin, Dahlem Center for Machine Learning and Robotics (DCMLR), die Technische Universität Berlin, Daimler Center for Automotive IT Innovations (DCAITI), Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft (ZTG).
Associated parties: The project is supported by Tegel Projekt GmbH, which is making the site available for testing, and T-Systems International GmbH.
