SMART CITIES
❱❱ The e-Palette electric autonomous vehicle must have the capability to serve the needs of a diverse population, including pedestrians
transport service for athletes and related staff at the Olympic and Paralympic Games that have been postponed until later this year.
JUST-IN-TIME MOBILITY The spread of COVID-19 during the past 12 months has changed the way we live our lives, creating more diverse needs for mobility that include transport that enables proper distancing between passengers at the moment and a future of transport of goods and services, rather than people moving about. The ageing of society will also produce a range of mobility issues, so communities will increasingly need new mobility services to address this issue, such as the e-Palette and other Autono-MaaS options. To meet expectations such as these, Toyota aims to realise just- in-time mobility services that “go to where it is needed, when needed and on time”, enabling goods and services to follow the same ethos. To this end, it has developed an operations management system for e-Palette vehicles based on the Toyota Production System (TPS). This operations management system will be provided as new functions on Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) and will consist of the Autonomous Mobility Management System (AMMS), for connecting to vehicles, and the e-Palette Task Assignment Platform (e-TAP), for connecting to people. The system will reduce customer waiting times and alleviate congestion to ensure services provide safety, peace of mind and comfort. The concept of just-in-time mobility demands high levels of
connectivity and an ease of hailing the transport of choice for the consumer.
With the aim of achieving the ultimate TPS-based just-in-time mobility service, AMMS is able to dispatch e-Palette vehicles when
BREAKING GROUND
The end of February 2021 saw the groundbreaking ceremony (or Jichinsai) take place for Woven City, presided over by Akio Toyoda, who was joined by local dignitaries and key figures from technology partner companies involved in the project. Having been announced at the
start of 2020, the project has progressed at pace to the point of being able to start construction work as predicted so that Toyota’s work on developing future mobility
14 /// Testing & Test Houses /// March 2021
systems can meet its own targets as well as external imperatives relating to climate change and the global shift towards electric mobility. According to Toyoda, the
unwavering themes of Woven City are ‘human-centred,’ ‘a living laboratory’ and ‘ever-evolving’. “Together with the support of
❱❱ Toyota President, Akio Toyoda, presides over the ground- breaking ceremony for the Woven City project
our project partners, we will take on the challenge of creating a future where people of diverse backgrounds are able to live happily,” he says.
wanted, where needed, and in the number required. Operation schedules can be changed flexibly, with vehicles automatically dispatched and returned, according to real-time mobility needs. When additional vehicles are introduced into a service, the intervals between vehicles are adjusted to ensure even spacing. Vehicle abnormalities are also automatically detected and, if that happens, the vehicles are automatically returned to the depot and replacement vehicles immediately dispatched on the route to ensure stability of operation. In an emergency, the vehicles can be stopped and returned to service remotely, with an extra level of safety management, to provide passengers with peace of mind. In line with the “Jidoka (automation with a human touch)” approach of TPS, e-TAP was introduced as a visual management function. Visualisation of abnormalities in vehicles allows a single person to manage several vehicles, rather than one person continually monitoring one vehicle, which enables operation with fewer workers. Work instructions are automatically provided to workers required for operation, including on-board operators and maintenance personnel. Task management including delay and front-loading enables shorter lead-times for maintenance and the provision of high-quality services even with limited workers. Commenting on the e-Palette’s deployment within Woven City,
Toyota’s Keiji Yamamoto believes the new operations management system is the key to its success. “With the addition of this software, the evolved e-Palette will be refined and will grow with the never- finished, ever-growing Woven City,” he says. Operating within the real-world environment of Woven City where people live will provide a range of lessons through which the platform will continually evolve to enable services that provide customers with safety, peace of mind and comfort. T&TH
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
