Author: EUCAR June 29, 2018 Share this:

The ENSEMBLE consortium will implement and demonstrate multi-brand truck platooning on European roads over the next 3 years. This paves the way for the adoption of multi-brand truck platooning in Europe that will improve fuel economy, CO2 emissions, traffic safety and efficiency throughout the road freight sector.

The main aim of the ENSEMBLE project is to ensure safe platooning when using different branded trucks and carry out impact assessment for infrastructure, safety and traffic flow. Traffic and road authorities will be approached to jointly define road approval requirements. Platoon Operation Levels will be defined to guide the design of different platooning functionalities and strategies, reflecting the full diversity of trucks with platooning functionality.

The project started in June 2018. The first year will concentrate on bundling the requirements and development of a reference design. This reference design will be taken up by the OEMs and suppliers for implementation on their own trucks during the second year. Year three of the project will focus on testing the multi-brand platoons on test tracks and international public roads. The technical results will be evaluated and combined with the initial requirements. Also, the impact on fuel consumption, drivers and other road users will be established.

ENSEMBLE consortium includes all six European truck manufacturers, they will bring in their fore-running technological position on platooning: DAF, DAIMLER, IVECO, MAN, SCANIA and VOLVO. CLEPA. The consortium is completed with suppliers (CLEPA, NXP, ZF, WABCO and Daimler Fleetboard) to support the OEM implementations, and by research partners (TNO, IDIADA, IFSTTAR, KTH and VU Brussel). ERTICO will ensure outbound focus by involving relevant stakeholders. This project is co-funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 769115.

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