• Energy Research

In order to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the transport sector, autonomous and electrified on-the-road modular vehicles (otrm) could be a solution. By separating the drive unit from the transport unit, they enable use cases for various transport tasks and reduce individual and motorized transport and its generated emissions. Therefore, the goal of this study is to assess the environmental impacts from cradle to grave by applying the LCA methodology for a defined otrm—the U-Shift—vehicle fleet considering a specific use case relative to a reference vehicle fleet. The results indicate that the U-Shift fleet reduces the life cycle environmental impacts in a range of 3–28% for all of the seven impact categories, which are analyzed in detail. While emissions from the use phase are similar, U-Shift has an environmental benefit in the production phase due to a low amount of resource-intensive driveboards. Considering the early development stage of U-Shift, several measures are discussed, addressing the material and configuration aspects of the vehicles as well as optimized use case applications, which promise further impact-reduction potential.

In order to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the transport sector, autonomous and electrified on-the-road modular vehicles (otrm) could be a solution. By separating the drive unit from the transport unit, they enable use cases for various transport tasks and reduce individual and motorized transport and its generated emissions. Therefore, the goal of this study is to assess the environmental impacts from cradle to grave by applying the LCA methodology for a defined otrm—the U-Shift—vehicle fleet considering a specific use case relative to a reference vehicle fleet. The results indicate that the U-Shift fleet reduces the life cycle environmental impacts in a range of 3–28% for all of the seven impact categories, which are analyzed in detail. While emissions from the use phase are similar, U-Shift has an environmental benefit in the production phase due to a low amount of resource-intensive driveboards. Considering the early development stage of U-Shift, several measures are discussed, addressing the material and configuration aspects of the vehicles as well as optimized use case applications, which promise further impact-reduction potential.

The development of new vehicle concepts, amongst others, aims to address current challenges in traffic and environmental protection. The modular vehicle concept U-Shift, which is being developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), promises a high operating efficiency through an on-the-road modular design and the associated possibility of distributed energy storage. The U-Shift consists of a driverless drive unit and various application-specific transport capsules. This work addresses a key research question of how the U-Shift's distributed energy storage systems must be designed to accommodate the most extreme case of a 24-hour operation without requiring idle time for grid charging. For this purpose, a simulation model of the U-Shift was developed in Dymola. The battery configuration was optimized regarding to a generic use case. As a result, a minimum energy content of the batteries of the drive unit and each capsule type was computed to enable a theoretical 24-hour operation.

The development of new vehicle concepts, amongst others, aims to address current challenges in traffic and environmental protection. The modular vehicle concept U-Shift, which is being developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), promises a high operating efficiency through an on-the-road modular design and the associated possibility of distributed energy storage. The U-Shift consists of a driverless drive unit and various application-specific transport capsules. This work addresses a key research question of how the U-Shift's distributed energy storage systems must be designed to accommodate the most extreme case of a 24-hour operation without requiring idle time for grid charging. For this purpose, a simulation model of the U-Shift was developed in Dymola. The battery configuration was optimized regarding to a generic use case. As a result, a minimum energy content of the batteries of the drive unit and each capsule type was computed to enable a theoretical 24-hour operation.