26. October 2023 | Press releases:

Autonomous truck sets course for motorway ATLAS-L4 funding project records important milestones

Sensor vehicle already collecting data on motorway
Technical foundation laid for autonomous driving control centre
First automated motorway test drives to take place this year

The driverless truck is gradually becoming a reality: Since January 2022, MAN Truck & Bus, Knorr-Bremse, Leoni, Bosch, Fernride, BTC Embedded Systems, Fraunhofer AISEC, Technische Universität München, Technische Universität Braunschweig, TÜV SÜD, Autobahn GmbH and Würzburg Institute of Transport Sciences (WIVW GmbH) have been working together on the research and development project ATLAS-L4 (Automated Transport between Logistics Centres on Level 4 Expressways) to put autonomous trucks on the road. The project is based on the 2021 law on autonomous driving, which in principle allows autonomous driving on defined routes under technical supervision. After the first 22 months, the project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, has already reached important milestones.

“ATLAS-L4 will soon be the first autonomous truck on a German motorway,” says Dr. Frederik Zohm, Executive Board Member for Research and Development at MAN Truck & Bus, describing the common goal of the twelve ATLAS-L4 project partners. “In this way we want to contribute to hub-to-hub automation, i.e. driverless commuting between logistics yards, and thus to more safety, more efficiency and less congestion on the roads – the driver shortage can also be countered with automation concepts”.

What has been achieved since the start of the project?

The partners jointly presented the results of their work to date at a project event in Munich on 24 October.

For example, MAN Truck & Bus, which is responsible for the overall development of the system, has now built a prototype vehicle. It is equipped with sensors on the roof, front and sides of the driver’s cab, as well as integrated computers. It will initially be used as a sensor vehicle to collect data before the functional development of autonomous driving begins, including initial test drives on the motorway with a safety driver. The vehicle has already successfully completed its first kilometres on MAN’s Munich test track. Functionalities and interfaces were put to the test: for the first time the components communicated with each other and for the first time the sensors detected a realistic environment.

The safety-related subsystems for the Level 4 architecture, such as the electrical system, steering and redundant braking system, have also been designed and successfully tested in the first prototypes.

This is another milestone to which the project team has already added a tick: In September, the control centre for technical monitoring was successfully commissioned and connected to the vehicle. The web interface now displays the vehicle on a map with all relevant information such as speed and automation status.

In addition, MAN and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC successfully carried out the project-accompanying risk analysis for the vehicle. On this basis, cyber security measures such as authentic and encrypted communication and functional security measures such as redundancies and degradation concepts were defined for the autonomous driving system. Extensive attack and failure scenarios are run through and appropriate protection concepts are developed.

photo: MAN Truck & Bus SE

The next steps

The next major milestone is the debut on public roads: the test vehicle is expected to make its first motorway journeys before the end of the year – with a safety driver on board, of course.

All of these milestones contribute to the long-term goal of ATLAS-L4: to prove that the use of Level 4 automated and thus driverless vehicles on motorways is feasible. This is the cornerstone for future series applications for a Logistics 4.0 – made possible by the network of the strong ATLAS-L4 consortium. The project will run until December 2024, at the end of which there should be an industry-ready concept for the operation of automated trucks on motorways.

Press Contact

Gregor Jentzsch, MAN Truck & Bus SE

Phone: +49 89 1580-2001, presse-man@man.eu

Further information on the ATLAS-L4 project, the project partners and press contacts of the partners are available online: www.atlas-l4.com

Partner

In the project, the commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus is responsible for the overall system development and the integration of all components into the vehicle. MAN is also responsible for data transmission to the vehicle and the commissioning of the Control Centre, which will monitor the test drives in terms of the technical supervision provided for in the law on autonomous driving.

Knorr-Bremse, the world market leader for braking systems, is developing the special, redundantly designed braking system architecture that will enable the safe operation of a Level 4 truck in any situation.

Project partner Leoni ensures that the on-board network and the electronic line distribution of the automation system also always function reliably, regardless of any faults that may occur.

Robert Bosch Automotive Steering GmbH is developing a fault-tolerant steering system for ATLAS-L4 that meets all requirements for SAE Level 4 automation.

The Munich-based start-up Fernride GmbH is investigating the possibilities of teleoperation in the hub-to-hub scenario addressed by the project. With Fernride’s teleoperation platform, autonomous vehicles can be monitored and remotely controlled if necessary.

The test tool manufacturer BTC Embedded Systems AG is dedicated to scenario-based and simulative test approaches for complete vehicle verification and safety validation with special consideration of critical driving situations.

In the project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC is extending its methods for security risk analyses to automated trucks for the first time and is researching solutions for holistic security management. On this basis, security risk analyses and protection concepts for the trucks and their ecosystem are being developed.

The Institute of Control Engineering at the TU Braunschweig is developing, among other things, concepts for the safe operation of Level 4 trucks and for the technical self-awareness of automated vehicles.

The Institute of Automotive Technology at TU Munich is contributing its expertise with regard to various aspects of driving dynamics and is developing interaction concepts for technical supervision.

TÜV SÜD contributes its extensive experience with test environments for automated vehicles to the project test drives, testing the capabilities of the vehicles themselves as well as the validity of the simulation and evaluating the safety of the vehicles as part of the release process.

With the law on autonomous driving, the approval of operating areas on motorways is the responsibility of Autobahn GmbH. As part of the project, it is developing a digital management system for operational area approval and is contributing its many years of expertise in the field of cooperative and connected driving to the project.

WIVW GmbH is setting up a teleoperator workstation that allows the control of a virtual truck by coupling it with the driving simulation. The requirements developed for a teleoperator workplace can thus be converted into a concrete concept, implemented, visualised and evaluated.

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