AUTOSUP: Preparing the ground for AUTonomous Multimodal SUPply Chains

AUTOSUP focuses on several strategic objectives:

• Defining automation requirements: The project aims to establish the necessary automation requirements (needs, opportunities) to achieve seamless multimodal automatic freight transport, ensuring interoperability and efficiency across various transport modes.
• Empowering stakeholders with a Decision Support System: An open, data-driven Decision Support System (DSS) will aid T&L stakeholders in defining automated processes. This system will facilitate strategic decision-making, allowing for feasibility studies via simulation to assess new solutions’ efficiencies and impacts, considering sustainability, financial, and social dimensions.
• Supporting transition paths to automation: Two Living Hubs – Antwerp-Bruges and Trieste ports – serve as focal points for demonstrating the link between major transport nodes and road corridors, rail, inland waterways, and airports. These hubs will cover six diverse use cases, providing real-world insights into automation transition.
• Designing new models for autonomous logistics: The project team will develop innovative operational, governance, and organisational change management models to incentivise cross-mode collaboration and reduce investment costs, fostering a cohesive and efficient autonomous logistics network.
• Validating solutions: Through feasibility analyses, impact assessments, and stakeholder engagement, the consortium partners will validate the operational and cost efficiencies of the proposed solutions, ensuring practical applicability and scalability.
• Establishing a strategic alliance: AUTOSUP will form a strategic alliance and thematic working group to align multimodal automation adoption roadmaps across rail, road, aviation, waterborne, and alternative transport modes. The project aims to lower automation adoption barriers through comprehensive transition guidelines, capacity-building sessions, and policy recommendations.

AUTOSUP integrates social innovation practices to foster automation adoption while enhancing safety. We account for workforce dynamics and the skills required for transitioning to autonomous operations, ensuring a balanced and inclusive approach to automation.

Why ALICE is part of the AUTOSUP project and what is its role?

ALICE is part of the AUTOSUP project to leverage its expertise in logistics innovation and collaboration. By supporting the development and implementation of automated multimodal freight transport, ALICE aims to accelerate the transition to net zero emissions in logistics. Its involvement ensures alignment with European Commission goals, facilitates stakeholder engagement, and promotes the adoption of the Physical Internet concept for efficient, sustainable logistics networks.

With this project, ALICE expects to:

• Create a robust knowledge base on transportation automation initiatives and roadmaps.
• Identify short term opportunities of automation for transportation companies, logistics service providers and goods owners.
• Identify gaps and barriers to adoption of automated transportation solutions in intermodal and logistics chains including requirements for redesigning logistics processes to lever value streams for automation.
• Support cross-fertilisation across projects, partnerships and initiatives.
• Transfer knowledge generated to our members and broader logistics ecosystem
• Based on assessment of the progress of AUTOSUP for innovation upscale, best practices, define a roadmap aiming to define standardization recommendations and a policy package.

Additional information

Website:  www.autosup-project.eu
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/autosup/ 
Project Manager at ALICE:  Giuseppe Luppino