SMART CITIES: Bridging the gap between research and business practice
Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) is a private, not-for-profit organization, of public interest, a partnership of nine institutions with research and development in the field of Telecommunications. IT members (about 260 Ph.D. holders) are formed by research groups that cover most of the R&D areas in Telecommunications and supporting sciences and technologies. Two of these research groups launched a challenge for WellAdvisedCo to create a project to get some ITS technologies developed by previous research projects available for citizens and companies.
So, we designed a method where companies could conduct real-world testing to try out new businesses supported by these technologies for citizens. IT researchers built an Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS) platform for been set up on the roads and railways near to the Aveiro beach. This demonstration aimed to get individuals and organizations (public entities and companies) to receive real-time traffic flow information and other alerts to be aware of the benefits of an ITS platform in daily mobility routines. By that real experiment, we get an open innovation platform that companies could use and experiment to develop new businesses.
The PASMO project was thus created – Open Platform for the development and experimentation of Mobility Solutions.
We then designed a strategy for funding this project in the regional European Tech Transfer (EU/ERDF) funds. We got an application approved by CENTRO 2020 involving an eligible investment of 370.000 euros funding, which resulted in an ERDF incentive of 314.000 euros, that allowed the PASMO project implementation. Developed by researchers of the Embedded Systems group and the Telecommunications and Networking group, both from IT in Aveiro, PASMO consists of three subsystems that mirror the different layers of intelligent transport systems: data collection (roads, railways, and vehicular resources), data transfer (telecommunications and data infrastructure), and applications. These components, with equipment, interfaces, and open data, were integrated and available for new business experimentation. All of this is an open innovation ecosystem (Living Lab) in the area of ITS – Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS) in Portugal´s center region. PASMO presented a valuable opportunity for companies to collaborate in creating, developing, and validating equipment and services, protocols, processes, applications, and standards.
The infrastructure installed on the ground has proven to be an added value for IT and the central region, enabling the creation of a large-scale experimentation infrastructure in mobility and smart cities. The PASMO project was the embryo of several ongoing initiatives, of which the Aveiro Technological Free Zone (ZLT) stands out, the large-scale demonstrator of the Route 252 project of the PRR’s mobilizing agendas, the NextGen Mobility Test Bed, integrated into the national test network beds, the STEROID project and the TRUST project.
In addition to the initiatives already underway, PASMO’s infrastructure has been fundamental for the consolidation of the cluster of intelligent and cooperative transport systems (C-ITS) in the Aveiro region, attracting national and international companies to use the infrastructure installed on the ground in proofs of concept, operational tests and demonstrations of C-ITS products and services.
Client: The Telecommunications Institute (IT) is a private, non-profit organization of public interest, a partnership of nine institutions with scientific research and development in the area of Telecommunications.
Smart Cities, Smart Transport Systems; Telecommunications
