P2 – moving people and parcels
Role
Industrial Design
UX Design
Service Design
Team
Diploma Project at Hochschule Darmstadt
Date
2020
Identifying the problem
It was clear very early on that I wanted to deal with the topic of urban mobility in my diploma thesis, since I was commuting from Frankfurt to Berlin at that time. After extensive online research and visiting a conference, one thing became clear: There’s a big opportunity to combine the areas of passenger transport and parcel delivery, as there is a huge demand for mobility solutions for people without their own car, especially in large cities, while at the same time huge quantities of parcels are delivered daily. That is why I decided to develop a concept that combines the areas of passenger transport and parcel delivery within one large city.
Since living in Berlin, I've seen many mobility trends come and go, so my aim was to develop a system that could last and also reduce traffic congestion.
The parcel box – automated sorting while driving.
Challenge: Logistics and automatisation
I set up various scenarios in which the packages were stored in the floor or roof of the vehicle, among other things. Both variants turned out to be too complicated and so I decided to place the parcel box in the middle of the vehicle. In the beginning my approach was to not interrupt the interior. However, this would lose a lot of valuable space in which to store more packages. So I finally came to the idea of placing the parcel box in the middle of the vehicle and pulling it up under the roof to create two separate passenger cabins. This also has the advantage that despite the spacious size of the vehicle one can sit relatively privately in small groups of up to six people.
Within the limits of the parcel box I tried several known sorting options to automise the parcel sorting. At the beginning I tried a cassette, which was pushed into the station and back into the vehicle, via robot arms or sorting robots like in a pharmacy, which turned out to be too space consuming.
I finally came across conveyor belts. I looked at different sorting systems in parcel centres, but also e.g. at the airport. This led me to so-called cross belt conveyors, which can run in two axes. I used this technology to make sorting in my parcel box possible.
In the animation on the right you can see how the conveyor belts work. When the vehicle approaches the next station, the grey conveyor belt already "searches" for the matching parcels, moves to the appropriate height, and the white conveyor belts transport the parcel to the grey one. In this way the grey one collects all packages that have to be unloaded at the next station and can unload them in one movement.
The fixed parcel station continues underground to save space on the sidewalk. Under the ground there is also a conveyor belt system that pre-sorts the stored packages. Whenever the parcel box is full with parcel that the vehicle can't deliver itself, it drives to a bigger parcel station (like a transshipment center) where it completely unloads.
The passenger cabin –comfort of a taxi, advantages of public transport
Challenge: Flexible passenger needs
In the passenger cabins, my goal was to offer the comfort of a taxi, but still provide enough space for bicycles, prams and the like. I tried out various seat placements and types in the 3D model and was always double checking if and where a bicycle, wheelchair or pram would find place.
Since the vehicle drives autonomously and electrically, I was able to place three seats between the wheel arches. On the opposite side the width was enough for four seats, moreover the people don't sit directly opposite each other, which was my wish. These four seats are all folding seats, which makes it possible to adapt the interior modularly to different situations.
How it’s built
AI route planning
To ensure that the route from P2 always runs optimally, an algorithm constantly recalculates it. For example, users who want to travel together are brought together so that they can board together and P2 only has to stop once. Users who are close to a parcel station that P2 will be approaching are asked to go there so that they can board at that point. The route is always being recalculated.
Used resources
HDRI Haven / hdrihaven.com
GrabCADD / grabcad.com
Nonskandinavia / nonscandinavia.com
The Noun Project / nounproject.com
Unsplash / unsplash.com (licence-free)
Adobe Stock / stock.adobe.com (bought licences)
Project by Victoria Lemke
Supervision Prof. Tom Philipps