Volvo’s ideas factory

The rapid pace of change in all business sectors means that today’s manufacturers need to invest heavily in nurturing new technologies that will improve their performance and their customer’s bottom line. Volvo Technology is a business unit within the group employing 500 people with operations in Sweden, France, North America and Asia. It supports all of the company’s main businesses including bus and coach. Its CEO Malin Persson describes the unit as an ideas farm. “Curiosity drives our business; everyone we employ is a genius,” quips Persson.

Volvo Technology organises what it terms ‘Innovation jams’ around the group which can involve hundreds of staff feeding in ideas and commenting on others’ suggestions. A recent ‘jam’ involved 1,200 people with 26,000 individual sessions. According to Persson, it generated 350 good ideas and nine have been financed for further work.

Alongside the pre-launch of the 8900 bus, Volvo Technology offered a brief insight into some of the bus and coach projects it is working on, including enhancements to its hybrid buses and a tool to optimise the dwell time of urban buses.

The hybrid developments are definitely in the near-market category rather than long-term blue-skies’ thinking. The project, which is part of a European funded programme, HAVEit (Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport), aims to improve the fuel efficiency of Volvo’s hybrid buses by predicting the drive cycle and optimising the balance between electric and diesel power.

The system is currently being trialled on a Volvo 7700 hybrid running in Gothenberg and involves a complete mapping of the route topography using a GPS system, combined with laser detection system on the vehicle to detect vehicles in front and a camera to check on traffic lights ahead.

The live data gathered from the camera and laser detection is used along with the route topography analysis to adjust the power source to maximise fuel efficiency. For example if the bus is heading uphill with a downhill section to follow, the system will be able to predict that additional torque will be required uphill followed by likely application of the brakes when going downhill to keep within the speed limit. The management system assesses that if there is a high level of charge in the batteries, electric power will be utilised on the uphill section to ensure that there is capacity to accept the incoming charge generated on the downhill section. Similarly, obstructions such as slow-moving traffic or changing traffic signals ahead will enable the system to predict a change in the power and torque requirements and to adjust the diesel-electric power balance accordingly.

The results of the trials so far indicate that additional fuel savings of 5-10 per cent may be achievable, above and beyond the existing hybrid savings. The presentation on the trial clearly impressed Volvo Buses’ UK representatives who already have a complete GPS mapping of London’s route 141 on which the B5 hybrids are operating.

Another European funded-project - most of the work carried out by Volvo Technology has roughly 50 per cent public funding - is looking at developing tools to analyse dwell times.

The research uses behavourial analysis to assess the way that people get on and off buses. A computer simulation has been developed including the identification of distinct types of passenger who use the buses differently; from the older passenger who needs to find a seat and always gets ready in good time before the bus gets to their stop, to the always-in-a-hurry teenager who will make a dash for the doors at the last minute. All of the different passenger types have an effect on overall dwell times at stops, according to Volvo’s researchers, and the project is also looking at the impact of seat layout, handrails and the positioning and dimensions of doors. The agent-based computer simulation has been tested through an experiment conducted with volunteer bus passengers and a wooden bus in the Volvo Technology centre in Gothenberg. The passengers were filmed getting on and off the bus in various scenarios and the results helped to validate Volvo’s computer model.

Volvo Bus is using the results to date to develop a new articulated concept bus which should be ready next year. Volvo Technology’s specialists say that in the future the computer simulation could be used by operators looking to assess the optimum layout for buses running in a particular location with parameters adjusted to match local requirements. Whether it will convince operators outside London to use a second door is perhaps more open to question.

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