Tavoite

The Energy ECS project addresses Europe’s critical challenge of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and transitioning to sustainable energy systems, particularly in mobility. This is vital for societal resilience against climate change, energy security, and reducing emissions. The project’s overall objective is to accelerate the digitalization of e-mobility systems by developing advanced technologies in electronics, components, and systems (ECS), facilitating European innovation and manufacturing capabilities. It showcases seven use cases, including new logistics modes, bi-directional grid charging, and safe autonomous driving, while fostering new business models and ecosystem transformation in the energy and mobility sectors.

Tulokset

Smart Mobility Results: The project achieved groundbreaking advancements in smart mobility. The partners developed the world’s first drone docking station and automatic landing system, enabling drones to land on moving targets. An ultra-low power SRAM memory chip, designed for use in System-on-Chips for IoT, sensors, and biomedical applications, has already been qualified for manufacturing at Global Foundries and TSMC. The project partners have also delivered a beyond-state-of-the-art Internet-of-Things device for autonomous ship container tracking and monitoring. Furthermore, an award-winning smart and self-sustainable temperature-controlled airline container has been introduced. For the first time, energy harvesting was demonstrated to power commercial tire sensors, complemented by innovative interconnection strategies for flexible piezoelectric energy harvesters.Autonomous Vehicles Results: This initiative made significant advances in autonomous vehicle technology. It achieved a very high positioning accuracy through advanced sensors and data fusion for infrastructure-based automated driving in bus depots. Position and velocity sensing capabilities in autonomous vehicles were enhanced using self-mixing interferometry (SMI) sensors. The project also developed a fully integrated LiDAR with a photonic integrated chip, providing high-performance 3D and velocity data for autonomous driving and manufacturing solutions, with a demonstrated range of 300 meters. Additionally, it introduced a new wireless charging system for UAVs, featuring a lightweight design of 50 grams and the ability to deliver 200W of power.Smart Grid and Energy Results: The project’s contributions to smart grid and energy systems include the development of a microgrid controller integrated with Microgrid Fleet Management software. The partners collaboratively delivered the first Energy Data Management (EDM) solution for unified connectivity among energy asset owners across geographical areas. A Vehicle Charge Control Unit (VCCU) was introduced to enable easy-to-use bidirectional Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) charging, which has already been sold to pilot customers during the later part of the project. Lightweight photovoltaic modules were developed, incorporating a novel shingling method.

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Lapland UAS will exploit the know-how and environments developed around the following topics: nanogrid, power quality measurements, frequency reserve market, test services, autonomous driving simulator and implementation of user interfaces and backend systems. The nanogrid implemented in the project will be exploited in future RDI projects and education. The nanogrid can be used to safely carry out power quality measurements, the know-how of which was improved during the project. The project also increased competence in the frequency reserve market. In the future, the nanogrid can also be exploited for RDI and teaching activities related to the frequency reserve market. In the area of testing, the know-how and adaptability of the environments increased, in particular for salt spray testing and testing in very cold conditions. This know-how can be exploited in the future for RDI, education and service sales activities. The knowledge accumulated in the development of the autonomous driving simulator has already been exploited in two new projects and will be exploited in future RDI and education. In the project we also developed and implemented user interfaces and their backend systems and this knowledge will be used in both education and RDI.