5GPRM: Beyond-5G- and AI-Enabled Micro-mobility-as-a-service for persons with reduced mobility

AI Quick Summary

The 5GPRM project proposes the creation of a new product type in the area of electric and autonomous micro-mobility with the integration of beyond-5G and AI technologies. The project effectively proposes a solution to optimize energy savings while reducing the product’s environmental footprint at the same time by simplifying the hardware, with the offloading of computation and sensing to next-generation 5G infrastructure for large-scale indoor and GNSS-denied environments.The project’s lead DAAV is a Swiss startup leading innovation in autonomous micro-mobility services in the form of autonomous electric wheelchairs for persons with reduced mobility (PRM). In 2024, DAAV has deployed for the first time worldwide a fully autonomous omnidirectional wheelchair to carry PRMs in airports in Switzerland and abroad. This represents the starting point and baseline for the 5GPRM project’s innovations. The proposed idea aims at enhancing DAAV's current autonomous wheelchair project, which has already been proven to be a more inclusive solution for PRM passengers. Indeed, with DAAV's mobility platform, PRMs are able to have a much more enhanced experience at airports, being able to explore the different spaces on their own with increased freedom of movement.In this project, DAAV SA and Sunrise LLC are bringing 5G- and AI-augmented micro-mobility services to reality with a pilot leveraging the new 5G infrastructure at the Zurich Airport. The project aims at employing network slicing and low-latency computational offloading to the edge to streamline the autonomous operations. This opens the door to a new range of products relying on 5G for services beyond connectivity, including but not limited to localization and computing.Project Innovation and Market PotentialThe innovation approach in 5GPRM is bottom-up in that the project rethinks how to design, develop, deploy and operate autonomous electric mobility service in a smarter and more integrated approach from an infrastructure perspective. The project is novel from the point of view of bringing additional value by increasing the number of stakeholders and widening the benefits of more integrative technology.Importantly, the market-product fit has already been proved, and the viability of the new solutions empowered by 5GPRM is evident. Indeed, the technological improvements that the 5GPRM project brings to the market have a direct impact in both reducing the production and operation cost for the service provider, as well as increasing the amortization potential for existing connectivity infrastructure and also reducing the cost for the serviced end-users.Work PlanThe project is planned around a 3-month iterative and joint rapid development effort by DAAV and Sunrise together with a 3-month pilot with Zurich airport, starting in November 2024.Project resources include DAAV’s existing hardware and connectivity solutions from Sunrise, while the funding will be dedicated to hire a part-time engineer hosted by DAAV and working jointly with both partners, and to cover the pilot costs with Zurich Airport.The work plan consists of 3 work packages (WPs) described below:WP1: SW-HW co-design, SW integration, pilot and case-study requirementsObjective: To define the new hardware requirements and distribution of software between end-device and edge computing resources. Definition of requirements for the pilot.Methodology: Collaborative design and integration of DAAV’s autonomous wheelchair systems with Sunrise’s 5G connectivity, delivering a minimally-viable connected product that remains fully functional.Tasks: [T1.1] Co-design and integration of SW-HW systems; [T1.2] Define pilot and case-study requirements.WP2: Energy savings benchmarking, prototyping and validation at Sunrise Ambassador HouseObjective: To prototype and validate energy savings through 5G-enabled computational offloading.Methodology: Benchmark energy consumption and validate prototypes at the Sunrise Ambassador House.Tasks: [T2.1] Prototype energy-efficient systems; [T2.2] Benchmark and validate energy savings.WP3: Case study: integrating DAAV autonomous wheelchairs to the 5G infrastructure for localization and computational offloading at Zurich AirportObjective: To demonstrate and validate the integration of DAAV’s wheelchairs with 5G infrastructure at Zurich Airport. Validate Methodology: Deploy and assess the autonomous wheelchair system within a real-world airport environment.Tasks: [T3.1] Deploy wheelchairs at Zurich Airport; [T3.2] Evaluate operational performance and energy savings.The WP tasks are connected to the following milestones:MS1: Completion of Energy-Efficient System Prototyping (End of M3)MS2: Deployment of Energy-Efficient Mobility Solution at Zurich Airport (End of M4)MS3: Validation of Environmental Impact and Energy Savings (End of M6)Societal and Sustainability Impact5GPRM directly addresses key UN sustainable development goals (SDGs):SDG3 (good health and well-being) by targeting persons with reduced mobility and elderly, providing a mobility solution to large indoor spaces, which is non-existent in today’s market. The core of 5GPRM is an inclusive and sustainable micro-mobility service.SDG9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) by working together with a leading connectivity infrastructure provider (Sunrise LLC) and a large infrastructure manager (Zurich Airport) to deliver sustainable and scalable mobility that integrates and interacts with the infrastructure.SDG11 (sustainable cities and communities) by focusing on inclusive mobility solutions and addressing spaces that are overlooked by today’s technological focus: large indoor spaces where the technical challenges regarding autonomy, connectivity and infrastructure integration are vastly different to existing solutions.Overall, 5GPRM brings together a collaborative approach and multi-disciplinary consortium with a startup, a large corporation and an end-user collaborating in studying potential energy-saving approaches to micro-mobility, and opening new doors to operating mobility as a service in a scalable and sustainable manner. An initial study of DAAV and Sunrise projects that over 30% of energy used by the current DAAV wheelchairs (150 out of 400 W) can be saved by moving computation and sensing, including localization services, to the 5G edge and leveraging AI algorithms for ensuring high-throughput and low-latency in such a safety-critical application. Interpolating the savings to a conservative estimate of 20 wheelchairs deployed in an airport averaging ten 30-minute passenger trips per day, the energy savings for a single airport yearly surpass 5MWh. This leads to a projection of at least 100MWh annual savings accounting for 20 major airports in Europe alone.In addition to the operational energy savings, the lower complexity of the product from a hardware perspective, and the simplification of electronic circuits and sensors directly leads to a significantly reduced carbon footprint from the point of view of manufacturing, production and deployment.In summary, the 5GPRM project proposes a solution that would save over 100MWh of energy in a handful of European airports alone, just by applying it to today’s DAAV business reach potential. In the long term, the solutions can be ported to hospitals, malls, and any large-scale indoor spaces, therefore increasing the global energy saving potential by up to two orders of magnitude in the 10s of GWh range.Overall, we propose the 5GPRM project as a cross-domain innovation idea to further develop micro-mobility solutions in overlooked indoor domains. These solutions are inherently more sustainable, scalable and inclusive. Therefore, the project’s impact, while prioritizing sustainability and contributing to reducing overall CO2 emissions, reaches a more inclusive and sustainable society as well.

Project Idea Metadata

Project Idea Name: 5GPRM: Beyond-5G- and AI-Enabled Micro-mobility-as-a-service for persons with reduced mobility
Date: 8/28/2024 9:00:49 PM
Administrators:

Project Idea Description

The project’s lead DAAV is a Swiss startup leading innovation in autonomous micro-mobility services in the form of autonomous electric wheelchairs for persons with reduced mobility (PRM). In 2024, DAAV has deployed for the first time worldwide a fully autonomous omnidirectional wheelchair to carry PRMs in airports in Switzerland and abroad. This represents the starting point and baseline for the 5GPRM project’s innovations. The proposed idea aims at enhancing DAAV's current autonomous wheelchair project, which has already been proven to be a more inclusive solution for PRM passengers. Indeed, with DAAV's mobility platform, PRMs are able to have a much more enhanced experience at airports, being able to explore the different spaces on their own with increased freedom of movement.

In this project, DAAV SA and Sunrise LLC are bringing 5G- and AI-augmented micro-mobility services to reality with a pilot leveraging the new 5G infrastructure at the Zurich Airport. The project aims at employing network slicing and low-latency computational offloading to the edge to streamline the autonomous operations. This opens the door to a new range of products relying on 5G for services beyond connectivity, including but not limited to localization and computing.

Project Innovation and Market Potential

The innovation approach in 5GPRM is bottom-up in that the project rethinks how to design, develop, deploy and operate autonomous electric mobility service in a smarter and more integrated approach from an infrastructure perspective. The project is novel from the point of view of bringing additional value by increasing the number of stakeholders and widening the benefits of more integrative technology.

Importantly, the market-product fit has already been proved, and the viability of the new solutions empowered by 5GPRM is evident. Indeed, the technological improvements that the 5GPRM project brings to the market have a direct impact in both reducing the production and operation cost for the service provider, as well as increasing the amortization potential for existing connectivity infrastructure and also reducing the cost for the serviced end-users.

Work Plan

The project is planned around a 3-month iterative and joint rapid development effort by DAAV and Sunrise together with a 3-month pilot with Zurich airport, starting in November 2024.

Project resources include DAAV’s existing hardware and connectivity solutions from Sunrise, while the funding will be dedicated to hire a part-time engineer hosted by DAAV and working jointly with both partners, and to cover the pilot costs with Zurich Airport.

The work plan consists of 3 work packages (WPs) described below:

WP1: SW-HW co-design, SW integration, pilot and case-study requirements

Objective: To define the new hardware requirements and distribution of software between end-device and edge computing resources. Definition of requirements for the pilot.
Methodology: Collaborative design and integration of DAAV’s autonomous wheelchair systems with Sunrise’s 5G connectivity, delivering a minimally-viable connected product that remains fully functional.
Tasks: [T1.1] Co-design and integration of SW-HW systems; [T1.2] Define pilot and case-study requirements.

WP2: Energy savings benchmarking, prototyping and validation at Sunrise Ambassador House

Objective: To prototype and validate energy savings through 5G-enabled computational offloading.
Methodology: Benchmark energy consumption and validate prototypes at the Sunrise Ambassador House.
Tasks: [T2.1] Prototype energy-efficient systems; [T2.2] Benchmark and validate energy savings.

WP3: Case study: integrating DAAV autonomous wheelchairs to the 5G infrastructure for localization and computational offloading at Zurich Airport

Objective: To demonstrate and validate the integration of DAAV’s wheelchairs with 5G infrastructure at Zurich Airport. Validate
Methodology: Deploy and assess the autonomous wheelchair system within a real-world airport environment.
Tasks: [T3.1] Deploy wheelchairs at Zurich Airport; [T3.2] Evaluate operational performance and energy savings.

The WP tasks are connected to the following milestones:

MS1: Completion of Energy-Efficient System Prototyping (End of M3)
MS2: Deployment of Energy-Efficient Mobility Solution at Zurich Airport (End of M4)
MS3: Validation of Environmental Impact and Energy Savings (End of M6)

Societal and Sustainability Impact

5GPRM directly addresses key UN sustainable development goals (SDGs):

SDG3 (good health and well-being) by targeting persons with reduced mobility and elderly, providing a mobility solution to large indoor spaces, which is non-existent in today’s market. The core of 5GPRM is an inclusive and sustainable micro-mobility service.
SDG9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) by working together with a leading connectivity infrastructure provider (Sunrise LLC) and a large infrastructure manager (Zurich Airport) to deliver sustainable and scalable mobility that integrates and interacts with the infrastructure.
SDG11 (sustainable cities and communities) by focusing on inclusive mobility solutions and addressing spaces that are overlooked by today’s technological focus: large indoor spaces where the technical challenges regarding autonomy, connectivity and infrastructure integration are vastly different to existing solutions.

Overall, 5GPRM brings together a collaborative approach and multi-disciplinary consortium with a startup, a large corporation and an end-user collaborating in studying potential energy-saving approaches to micro-mobility, and opening new doors to operating mobility as a service in a scalable and sustainable manner.

An initial study of DAAV and Sunrise projects that over 30% of energy used by the current DAAV wheelchairs (150 out of 400 W) can be saved by moving computation and sensing, including localization services, to the 5G edge and leveraging AI algorithms for ensuring high-throughput and low-latency in such a safety-critical application. Interpolating the savings to a conservative estimate of 20 wheelchairs deployed in an airport averaging ten 30-minute passenger trips per day, the energy savings for a single airport yearly surpass 5MWh. This leads to a projection of at least 100MWh annual savings accounting for 20 major airports in Europe alone.

In addition to the operational energy savings, the lower complexity of the product from a hardware perspective, and the simplification of electronic circuits and sensors directly leads to a significantly reduced carbon footprint from the point of view of manufacturing, production and deployment.

In summary, the 5GPRM project proposes a solution that would save over 100MWh of energy in a handful of European airports alone, just by applying it to today’s DAAV business reach potential. In the long term, the solutions can be ported to hospitals, malls, and any large-scale indoor spaces, therefore increasing the global energy saving potential by up to two orders of magnitude in the 10s of GWh range.

Overall, we propose the 5GPRM project as a cross-domain innovation idea to further develop micro-mobility solutions in overlooked indoor domains. These solutions are inherently more sustainable, scalable and inclusive. Therefore, the project’s impact, while prioritizing sustainability and contributing to reducing overall CO2 emissions, reaches a more inclusive and sustainable society as well.