Objectives
- To develop a new microvehicle based on the smart fusion of the concepts of monowheel and scooter. The monowheel and the scooter have the best characteristics to be used as a means of daily transport and to fully exploit the intermodality. The new microvehicle will take the best features of these two vehicles and eliminate the disadvantages, obtaining a silent, clean, energy efficient and safe vehicle, as well as attractive and affordable to the public so that the barriers for adopting it are minimized. The development includes a) the consolidation of already outlined conpects, through analysis of functionality and comparison with existing vehicles, on the basis of an extensive analysis of user's needs and safety and regulamentary aspects b) structural and electrical / electronic design c) in-house testing
- To do an extensive demonstration and re-design activity. The vehicle will be tested in a real environment in 4 European cities: Rome, Eilat and 2 others that will be identified with a tender. In these demonstration tests, a fleet of vehicle will be tested for free by hundreds of users, on a rotating basis. Each vehicle can be used in stand alone mode or in battery sharing mode, through a system already developed by UNIFI, made available for the project. Operating data will be automatically collected through a platform and users will be asked to give feedback weekly. The pilot in Rome will start with 50 vehicles and will be used for a revision and re-design process, to arrive up to a TRL 7. Afterwards, the other pilots will start, in sequence, for 3 months in each city, in which 100 vehicles will be tested. These tests will be used to refine the vehicle up to the TRL8-9 and to do a physical demonstration of the technical and economic feasibility. During the pilots, pre-orders will be accepted. A detailed exploitation strategy and a draft business plan for the vehicle will be draft with the data collected.
Source: LEONARDO - European Commission.