EDAG presents modular fuel-cell robotic vehicle CityBot
Development service provider EDAG will be presenting a study of a swarm intelligent and multifunctional robotic vehicle with fuel cell drive for the IAA. The EDAG CityBot is to be operational around the clock and can be retrofitted as required using add-on modules.
The CityBot can be used as a passenger cell, a cargo carrier or a car for city cleaning. Due to the wide range of applications, the company confidently speaks of a “game-changer for the city of the future”.
EDAG is not reinventing the wheel with this futuristic-looking electric vehicle. Last year, for example, Daimler presented a similar modular mobility concept in the form of the Mercedes Vision Urbanetic. Depending on the body structure, the vehicle can transport up to twelve passengers or ten EPAL pallets – or, with a fully automated shelving system, become a mobile packing station. In addition, the Swiss think tank Rinspeed has founded a start-up called Snap Motion to further develop its electric concept vehicle Snap with ZF drive and prepare it for small series production. In January this year, we reported on a number of shuttle module platforms presented at the LA Motor Show.
The big difference between the EDAG concept and the two other autonomous multifunction transporters: While Daimler and Rinspeed rely on a battery-electric drive, the development service provider wants to use fuel cells. However, EDAG does not go into details about the drive in the communication, where the company has put the vehicle’s modularity as the main focus.
In conjunction with the platform technology for the Internet of Things and, for example, the digital micro-payment solutions of EDAG partner IOTA, CityBot will not only launch new, autonomous transport and work vehicles, but also possible new business models. “The city of the future must be clean, safe, worth living in, friendly, quiet and smart,” says Cosimo De Carlo, CEO of the EDAG Group. “For the CityBot, we have combined our development competencies from the Vehicle Engineering, Electrics/Electronics and Production Solutions divisions”. Thus the CityBot is “much more than a design study”.
At the IAA, the CityBot with the lounge-like module for passenger transport will be exhibited. Other possible modules, for example for city cleaning or green maintenance in parks, have been compiled in the picture gallery.
0 Comments