Our top 10 projects for 2024

10. Mobility landscapes: Mobility as a Service customer impact trial

This project began in June 2024, and our participants on the project are Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland), University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, City of Gold Coast, and Griffith University. The project is a Gold Coast trial of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), and is related to an earlier MaaS trial in Brisbane (ODIN PASS: A Mobility as Service trial at UQ).

9. Prototype Uncrewed Air System delivery aircraft development

GAP Drone, in collaboration with Australia Post and Swinburne University of Technology’s Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub (AIR Hub), is developing an autonomous logistics service, using a bespoke designed drone. The development of the service will focus on regional and remote Australia and assist in closing the gap to some of Australia’s most isolated communities, including First Nations communities.

8. Prospects for decarbonisong freight transport in Australia

This article is an overview of the completed Freight vehicles: An evaluation of renewable energy fuels project, and includes downloadable copies of the final reports. This 9-month piece of research undertook a comparative evaluation of the energy and environmental performance of the electric battery and hydrogen fuel cell for freight vehicles in Australia, and iMOVe worked on the project with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts and Swinburne University of Technology.

7. The future for hydrogen heavy vehicles and infrastructure in NSW

This is another overview article of a completed project, Investigating the viability of hydrogen fuel for heavy vehicle use, a project we ran with Transport for NSW, National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO), and Mov3ment.  This project identified the importance of a considered approach to making any transition toward new fuels. A downloadable copy of the project’s final report is available at the link.

6. Fixed-wing drones and small package delivery

This project emanated from our Industry PhD Program, with the work carried out by Sam Ord (PhD Student) and Matthew Marino (PhD Supervisor), of RMIT University. The project investigated a novel method of using a long tether and a medium fixed-wing drone to deliver multiple packages at various weights.

5. EV batteries: Repair, refurbish, repurpose, recycle

This project is investigating and developing solutions for sustainable repurposing of used lithium battery modules from electric vehicles (EV), including mining trucks, buses, and cars. It aims to rigorously assess EV battery conditions, such as the remaining capacity and performance characteristics, through advanced monitoring and testing, selecting only high-value modules to minimise waste and costs.

These repurposed modules will find second life in applications like household energy storage, grid support, mobile power, enhancing sustainability and efficiency. This will extend the useful life of these batteries and contribute to a more sustainable and efficient energy ecosystem.

Participant on the project are Magellan Powertronics and Edith Cowan University.

4. TRIPS: A Trip Rate Information Processing System

Partners with us on this are the Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland) and the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. The project seeks to develop a centralised database for curating land use and precinct-based trip and parking generation surveys, to facilitate the transition of vehicle-centric transportation planning towards a ‘mobility as a whole’ approach.

3. Gippsland community e-Bus pilot

Can community-run mobility services be successful where other forms of public transport are not viable or available? This project is a pilot of a community-run electric shuttle in Venus Bay and Sandy Point in Gippsland, Victoria. Neither of these regional towns have any bus, taxi or other publicly available services.

The project will evaluate best practices to run such a service, as well as measure the benefits that the service delivers to the community. This will inform the government and other rural communities on future policy development with regards to community mobility services.

Project partners with us on this are Venus Bay Community Centre, Sandy Point Bus Management Committee, Department of Transport and Planning, and La Trobe University.

2. DSRC vs C-V2X: Which C-ITS technology for Australia

This is the overview article on the completed project What C-ITS technologies for national deployment in Australia?, on which our partners were Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, and La Trobe University.

This piece of R&D closely investigated two competing technologies, DSRC and C-V2X, with the aim of providing the Australian Government with guidance for the consistent, nationwide deployment of C-ITS.

The final report for the project is available as a download at the link.

1. C-ITS national harmonisation and pre-deployment research

And number #1 on the 2024 list of content hits is this job of work, with a multitude of partners – Department of Transport and Planning (Victoria), Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland), Transport for NSW, Department for Infrastructure and Transport (SA), Main Roads Western Australia, Transport Accident Commission, ITS Australia, and University of Melbourne.

This project aims to conduct a comprehensive deployment of short-range (focussing on ITS-G5) for traffic management and multimodal use cases at the network level. This will be undertaken in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and the Australian Integrated Multimodal Ecosystem (AIMES).

AIMES works with a range of public and private sector partners to test new technology and data systems within an on-road test environment across 80 intersections and around 100 total kilometres of road in Melbourne, Victoria. The project will focus on ITS-G5 technology as this is already installed in AIMES and will be more cost-effective.

The project will also consider long-range C-ITS within AIMES and other road contexts such as highways and rural roads.