Overview
Nowadays, the technological equipment of urban passenger transport systems requires a high level of financial investment. Thus, fleets are often not modernised with suitable technologies which make public transport more attractive through improvements and service optimisation.
The cause of the lack of investment can be found in the high cost of including different independent systems (ticket system, localisation, information, communications), since each of these systems entails individual acquisition, installation, training and maintenance costs.
There are also costs relating to the integration of the data provided by the different sub-systems in order to extract valid information from the shared knowledge.
In some of the most advanced systems on the market, interconnection of the embedded sub-systems is available. However the high cost is still present. Moreover, the installation of different sub-systems implies an increase in the risk of failure in any of the elements, which reduces the dependability of the current distributed solutions.
The objective of the DUPLO project is to design, develop, produce and install a universal intelligent device for passenger transport systems, capable of taking on all the embedded tasks:
- Payment systems by contactless smart cards;
- Localisation and operation control systems;
- User information systems;
- Communication systems.
The project development process includes the development of the required electronic aspects and the implementation of the algorithms and control and calculation processes needed.
One of the key control processes that will be developed will take care of the passenger information system, providing real time information to the final users.
The availability of payment and localisation functions in the DUPLO system, jointly with the need for reliable information for the user in real time, requires advanced communications functions for the transmission of data automatically managed by the system. Therefore, the analysis and assessment of the different communication technologies, taking into account the characteristics of the urban environment where DUPLO will operate, are the second milestones of the project.
Last but not least, DUPLO offers alternative tools for the backup of information in case of failure – indispensable for payment systems.
Funding
Results
Development and installation of an universal intelligent device for passenger transport systems capable of taking on all the embedded tasks:
• Toll and payment systems by contactless smart cards
• Localisation and exploitation control system
• User information systems
• Communication systems.
Policy implications
None