Overview
Previous R&D projects on national and European level, which have addressed flexible collective transport services, have indicated that there is a need for an in-vehicle terminal (IVT) for flexible collective transport services. Most of the IVTs, which are on the market for public transport, are stand-alone systems, which have been developed for private cars or for regular public transport fleets.
Flexible collective transport services have special requirements, which are related to the nature of the transport service and to the type of information to be exchanged between the vehicle and the control centre. Moreover, the number of on-board telematic devices in collective transport fleets is increasing. Each of these devices has often its own proprietary driver-interface, which causes additional workload and has negative effects on safety for the driver. An in-vehicle terminal (IVT) for collective transport fleets is therefore desired, which responds to the needs of fleet operators and drivers, and the requirements of the transport services and on-board telematic devices. The IVT should act as interface between the control centre, the driver and the vehicle.
The main objective of the INVETE project is to develop and demonstrate a modular, multi-application in-vehicle terminal (IVT) for collective transport fleets, with the following characteristics:
- The IVT design is based on the identified needs of fleet operators and drivers, and on the requirements of the transport services and on-board telematic devices.
- The IVT is able to support a variety of functionalities for both regular and flexible transport services. Support of flexible transport service operations will be the main focus of INVETE.
- The IVT is designed to operate in different communication environments (GSM, private radio network) and management schemes under a well organised ITS scenario.
- The IVT can be used on different types of vehicles: bus, minibus and taxi.
- The IVT is interoperable with other on-board devices, and will provide a single driver interface for different on-board telematic devices installed in the vehicle.
The INVETE project will develop the application software for the services to be demonstrated, and communication protocols, for both GSM and private radio network. The INVETE project will base its work on state-of-the-art technologies and solutions. The IVT and related services will be laboratory tested and evaluated in real operating conditions both in Finland and Italy. More than twenty IVTs will be demonstrated in different test sites in Italy and Finland.
The INVETE terminal consists of two modules: the base module and the application module.
The base module performs the basic and real-time functions, the application module provides the user-interface to the driver. The application module is tailored towards the public transport service. For DRT services, the application module hosts a commercial operating system, has advanced graphical possibilities and is connected to the base module with an Ethernet link. For regular public transport applications, the application module is a more economic solution, which consists of a smaller graphical or text display that is connected with a serial link to the base module. Software is developed for the different demonstration sites.
The validation consists of two phases: a small-scale verification, and a large-scale demonstration. During the verification phase, the terminal software is integrated with the hardware and tested both in laboratory conditions, and in a few public transport vehicles. In the demonstration phase, the terminals have been installed in 20 real operating conditions in Italy and Finland.
In Italy, the terminals are installed in two different DRT services in Florence; in Finland, terminals are installed in minibuses and a maxi-taxi for a DRT service in the city of Kuopio, and in regular line buses operating between the cities Tampere and Helsinki.
Funding
Results
The main results of the INVETE project are:
- The analysed user needs for regular and flexible collective transport in-vehicle terminals;
- The modular INVETE architecture. Modularity is realised both at hardware level (separate modules for interfacing functionalities and for the interface to the driver; modular construction of the terminals), and at software level, through the use of socket-based services and the development of a TCP/IP based protocol. The modularity of the terminal allows adapting the terminal more easily to the requirements of the different public transport operators and services.
- The INVETE terminal, consisting of the Base Module, of which different versions have been used in the test-sites, and the Application Module. The Base Module (BSM), as the heart of the INVETE IVT platform, provides all the services needed in the DRT or AVL/AVM applications and having the in-vehicle interfaces to chassis and telematics units added with the external multi-communication (GSM, PRN, SRC). Two different Application Modules have been developed for DRT services and for regular public transport services. The AVL-ASM (Application module for regular public transport services) is a small and affordable unit, which provides flexibility to show both text and icons and has a few buttons for input. The DRT-ASM (application module for DRT applications) has a 10' full colour TFT-LCD touch screen display, with Ethernet connection.
Policy implications
Integration of public transport (regular and DRT) services (within national transportation policies) is a particular exploitation goal for some partners who have participated in INVETE. For instance without DRT there are no possibilities for seamless public transport outside public transport corridors. When implementing or updating monitoring systems for regular and/or flexible public transport, authorities and public transport operators are advised to take the complete life cycle of the system into account. For this reason, they should take the following criteria, which were addressed in the INVETE project, into consideration:
- openness,
- modularity,
- compliance to standards,
- updatability