DeustoTech

The railway management area is the most consolidated one. Its origins date back to 2005 when it began a partnership with a regional rail operator (EuskoTren). The aim of this area is the application of ICT in the railway sector in order to facilitate the management of the exploitation of rail service (both passengers and goods).

The main activities undertaken in this area are:

• Design and implementation of 'train-to-ground' wireless communications architectures (based on mobile and radio technologies), to facilitate the exchange of information between trains and ground control centers.
• Design and implementation of decision support systems to assist traffic management operators when the main traffic management systems fail.
• Design, implementation and deploy of hybrid positioning systems based on geo-positioning, railway beacons, odometry and inertial sensors.
• Design and implementation of remote tools to manage the configuration of different devices and equipment deployed on trains.
• New systems for providing multimedia content to the passengers (information, entertainment and advertising) based on vehicle location and user context and preferences

For further information, you can contact with the responsible of this research area:
Roberto Carballedo(roberto.carballedo@deusto.es)

We call i-vehicle to the research area that is focus on developing communications, security and infotainment services to the passengers in a vehicle. To achieve these goals, we use the latest technologies in the field of communications, software and information management.

We are currently working in the following topics:

• Remote vehicle monitoring: in this area we develop projects related to vehicle tracking and on board data acquisition. The goal of these research works is to obtain information in real time about the situation and distribution of the vehicles for, in example, developing applications related to traffic management and control.
• Vehicular communications: based on the IEEE 802.11p communication standard, we work with simulators as NCTUNs to study and analyze how the environment and the communications parameters affect to the transmission in a vehicular network (VANET). We also work with prototypes and communications development kits that allow us to check our applications in real FOTs.
• Development and deployment of services to improve the safety of the passengers on a vehicle, using the knowledge and outputs obtained in the area of vehicle communications. Moreover, in the projects developed in this topic, we propose infotainment services to obtain information in real time about the traffic situation and the vehicle throughput in order to improve the driving. These services and applications are framed in the European Green initiative and in the eco-driving concept.

For further information, you can contact with the responsible of this research area:
Unai Hernández(unai.hernandez@deusto.es)

Freight transport is an activity with a strong impact on productivity and competitiveness of enterprises, whether end users or logistics operators. Thus, unexpected incidents in transportation involve a negative impact on business productivity and their income statements. Delays, thefts, losses, or any other trouble in transport affect directly in effectiveness, efficiency and safety of involved enterprises, in addition to dissatisfaction customers, loss of confidence, etc.

On the other hand, the environmental impact of goods transport is too high, since it prioritizes aspects of transport efficiency over other more related with environmental sustainability. Because of this the most transport is by road, and this type of transport is responsible for most emissions of greenhouse gases (like CO2) and energy consumption (especially fossil fuels.) The absence of real time tracking for the transportation of goods is one of the causes that induce these incidents, so like lack of the necessary information to anticipate and resolve them in a short time or even learn from them so they do not recurrence.

The overall objective of this research line is deepen in radio frequency technology and wireless sensor networks, combined with positioning onboard systems and wireless communications, in order to allow experimental development of freight traceability solutions able to report reliable and timely information on real vehicles and goods transported through a system that is not intrusive in the operational model of the carrier. The result is a non-intrusive system with low cost of industrialization, deployment, operation and maintenance, which can provide real time information on the status of vehicles and transported goods, allowing to increase the capacity of the logistics operators to resolve in a short time all incidences resulting in goods transportations. Consequently optimizing fleet management provides better energy efficiency and reduces the environmental impact of freight transport.

Three markets are explored with a view to the use and transfer of such technology, industrial equipment, pharmaceuticals and rail freight transport. Each one of these markets involves specific traceability requirements already identified by the sector companies, as well as the suppliers of ICT. Although these sectors provide three specific experimental scenarios, the technology developed is applicable to any other sector with a strong impact in scopes of health, environmental or economic. For example, this may be the case if applied to the traceability of foodstuffs, dangerous goods or goods of high economic value, among others.

For further information, you can contact with the responsible of this research area:
Ignacio Angulo(ignacio.angulo@deusto.es)

We can contribute to tourism sector through the development of infrastructure to deploy services for providing contents in an intelligent way when people are moving. That is, trying to provide in a non intrusive way only those contents which are of interest for a tourist based on his/her profile, interests and situation.

Advances in Information and Communications Technologies have to be performed in order to achieve this objective. In this scenario, the context of tourism can be used in order to determine which kind of information have to be offered, efficient architecture for distributing contents in mobility situations have to be designed (using for example smart-phones, points of information in route, embedded platforms in vehicles, etc.). On the other hand, the way in which the contents are published is very important to ensure the feasibility of this kind of systems. Advances services to publish, update and extract contents in a simple, remote and non intrusive mode should be provided to the tourist agents.

This scenario has several challenges. First, how the context of the user can be obtained in a non intrusive way: can it be derived automatically? Second, how the information of interest for the tourists can be derived without require their participation: can it be validated the real interest? Third, how the information can be distributed in a mobility scenario: are communications available everywhere? Fourth, HMI concepts have to be considered: which kind of devices is being used by the tourist to display the contents, which is his/her situations (is he/she driving?). Fifth, how the information can be updated and distributed in an efficient way (cost of communications and deployment, energy consumption, devices needed, time required). More research on these topics has to be performed in order to provide a complete technological solution which faces the previous challenges.

For further information, you can contact with the responsible of this research area:
Asier Perallos(perallos@deusto.es)