The route used by the Navya Arma in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park passed this symbol of the Paralympic Games. ANDY IZATT
Like the drive for electric urban mobility, the development of autonomous transport has the potential to significantly change how we travel. An autonomous shuttle bus which is also fully electric has just completed a trial in east London and Andy Izatt went along to see how it performed
The longest trial in the UK to date of an autonomous shuttle bus has just been completed by Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London. A Navya Arma was operated between 1000hrs and 1700hrs on 18 days throughout September. It missed one day because of technical issues.
French technology company, Navya launched the fully autonomous and electrically driven Arma in October 2015. Up to 15 passengers, 11 of them seated, can be carried by a vehicle that has a top speed of 28 mph.
Multinational automotive supplier, Valeo, Group 8 and Keolis, the largest private sector transport group in France, have taken equity stakes in Navya alongside original shareholders, Gravitation, Cap Décisif Management and Robolution Capital.[wlm_nonmember][…]
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Navya’s research and development (R&D) team is based in Paris while production, testing, validation and administration takes place in Lyon.
Arma is equipped with the latest generation in sensors to enable it to find its way around and navigate effectively. Lidars, stereovision cameras, GPS, RTK (Real Time Kinematic), IMU (Inertia Measurement Unit) and odometry enable positioning within a few centimetres from the desired target, and to identify all types of obstacle in its path, whether they’re fixed or mobile.
Navya says the technical design rests on three principals: Perception, which enables an understanding of the environment in which the vehicle is located, detecting obstacles and anticipating their movement. Decision, which computes the itinerary and trajectory of the vehicle, and navigation – following the most optimal route computed for the vehicle.
Widely trialled
Two years on from the launch, Arma has been demonstrated in cities around the world. Forty-five have been built and more than 170,000 passengers have been carried. During the 19-day September trial in London, just over 1,300 people were carried along a relatively short four stop, 800m route that took 12 minutes to complete as a round trip. Most trying the service joined and alighted at the Timber Lodge Café near the Velodrome built for the Olympics. Top speed was restricted to 5mph, in line with Park rules. The trial was taking place in an area where there were many pedestrians.
Service delivery was provided by Euston-based Keolis UK and French multinational electric utility company Engie, which founded Our Parklife, a community interest company that provided volunteers that were stationed at stops and onboard the vehicle to answer questions. Here East provided recharging, which also took place at Timber Lodge Café. Here East, located on the western edge of the park and describing itself as “London’s home for making,” is where a growing number of creative and digital companies are based. Recharging was via plugging into a 220V socket, although induction could also have been used.
The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park sees itself as an ideal location to trial what it describes as “this new approach to advanced mobility.” Working in partnership with the capital’s ‘clean-tech’ industry, it says it’s “becoming a world leading test bed for trialling new approaches to meeting the global city-based challenges of our time.”
Experiencing Arma
So what was Arma like to ride in? With the Park’s speed limit, it wasn’t possible to experience the vehicle’s full potential, although the sedate ride provided was quite acceptable. The 11 seats included three tip-ups and each of the fixed ones had a lap-belt. Mounted as they were on the vehicle’s interior GRP mouldings, padding was also minimal and they were a little hard to sit on.
The vehicle’s ability to detect potential hazards was quickly demonstrated and it was impressive how it even reacted to the presence of a pigeon walking in its path. However, clever as the technology is, it does not give the vehicle any guidance as to what to do if the obstacle it confronts does not move out of the way. It’s not capable of steering around, as was demonstrated when it came up behind an idverde ground maintenance vehicle on one journey I observed.
There is growing interest in autonomous vehicles and their potential application in future transportation. As a 100% electric vehicle, Arma’s ‘green’ credentials are also clear, and its creator sees it as having a variety of roles within locations such as industrial sites, hospitals, airports, amusement parks and resort complexes. Depending on the legal framework, it can circulate on open roads and in pedestrian areas, but its particular forte is for enhancing mobility on the first and last mile of a journey.
The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park says the trial it has undertaken is the first in a programme of initiatives that will lead to the trialling of fully autonomous, road-worthy vehicles on the Park by 2019. More information is to be released soon.
Jennifer Daothong, Head of Strategy and Sustainability at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, said: “We are delighted that so many people embraced the recent trial of the autonomous shuttle bus. We are keen for the Park to become a leading name in the innovation of new and sustainable technologies, and this is just the first step to achieving that goal.”[/wlm_ismember]
