Partnership and innovation: two MOVYON pillars
MOVYON is the catalyst for technological innovation of the Autostrade per l’Italia Group. It promotes and develops initiatives which are implemented on motorways and other infrastructures for suburban mobility, as well as in urban settings, helping get closer to the concept of smart city.
The mindset and methods used by the company are very similar to those of startups. The approach is based on the Venture Capital concept: resources are allocated as the technological maturity of the initiative increases and the idea becomes more concrete.
This open innovation approach thus also includes partnerships. The R&D team works in close contact with innovation hubs, universities and research centres, selecting the most skilled human resources at international level.
Renewable energy in the ASPI network: opportunities and impacts on infrastructures
MOVYON has established a partnership with the Politecnico in Milan for a research project also involving the Department of Energy for the organisation of internships for students in the Mobility Engineering course.
The main focus of this partnership is to analyse technological trends for the various forms of mobility, assessing the best current and future photovoltaic technologies which could be installed in areas covered by the ASPI network, and to include, through automated identification algorithms, the overall achievable production capacity.
A related topic of the same partnership is the assessment of the expected impact in the medium term on the ASPI infrastructure of these new forms of mobility, more specifically of the recharging and fuelling requirements in service areas. The purpose of all this is to select the needs in terms of technological development and research in support of sustainable mobility.
New ideas for recharging systems of electric cars
The partnership with the Politecnico in Turin – CLIK Laboratory starts from a challenge, Fill up with green energy in motorway, intended for students in the final year of several master’s degree courses. The objective is to create an algorithm for the sizing and optimal management of accumulation systems which may be installed in service areas to deal with future needs related to optimal management of energy in the presence of local power generation from renewable sources and to help manage the recharging of electric cars.
Road paving is now high-tech
The aim of this partnership with Università Politecnica delle Marche is to develop an asset management instrument for road paving based on advanced forecasting algorithms. This new instrument will allow optimising the budgets allocated for maintenance, to monitor the environmental impact of roadwork.
Along with the Politecnico in Turin, a study is being conducted on material characteristics for road paving which may be used as part of induction recharging, self-healing, thermoregulation and de-icing.
Structural monitoring of briges and tunnels using a state-of-the-art system
The objective of this partnership is to develop an integrated system for the structural assessment of existing bridges and viaducts, through monitoring systems which are able to collect information regarding the behaviour of the structure and its setting. There are several players involved: the Politecnico in Turin – Department of building and geotechnical structural Engineering, the University of Trento – Department of civil, environmental and mechanical Engineering, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Pisa – Department of civil and industrial Engineering.
High-tech sensor-based systems at the service of people
The studies and experiments in partnership with Elis Smart City Lab (Elis Digital University), the University of Florence – Department of Computer Studies, and La Sapienza – Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering all share the same great objective: improving people’s lives.
These projects are related to experimenting with people-counter sensors and waste collection baskets which can communicate the residual capacity, thus allowing optimising operations, enhancing the performance of the average speed control system, as well as the study of signal testing methods recorded by safety sensors in a tunnel to report any anomaly in the signal thus detecting possible failures.
