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Description
A number of technical and socio-technical factors are driving the development and adoption of automation. The report, Transport 2040: Automation, Technology, Employment – The Future of Work, provided an overview of the most important trends forecasted to affect the global transport sector by 2040. This current report provides additional details of that assessment. The research conducted is guided by a transport-technology analytical model that provides a structure for a systematic review across different modes of transport. This report reviews, in particular, the transportation technology through the lens of transport vehicles (e.g. ships, trucks, trains, aircraft) and the technical infrastructure that is needed for the operation of the vehicle (e.g. waterways and harbours, roads, railway tracks and freight terminals, as well as controlled airspace and airports).
With respect to both vehicles and infrastructures, technological advances are on the horizon that increasingly make it possible to perform key functions at higher levels of autonomy. The key functions analysed that are relevant to the vehicles include the provision of energy and propulsion, navigation, communications and data transfer as well as cargo handling. The functions that are associated with the infrastructure include the provision of energy, the provision of a suitable path, communications and data transfer as well as terminal facilities. In addition to the technical feasibility of those technologies supporting these functions, the transport operations are constrained by such factors in the business environment as regulations and governance, economic benefits, social acceptance, knowledge and skills of operating personnel and labour market dynamics. All of these will impact the likelihood of developing, deploying and adopting the automation.
In the subsequent chapters, for each transport mode, the most relevant technological advances are identified and analysed in relation to this business environment. These analyses are summarized in a qualitative assessment, and start-up-curves are produced for selected technologies.
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.21677/itf.20191018
ISBN
978-91-985700-7-6
Publication Date
2019
Publisher
World Maritime University
City
Malmö
Disciplines
Operations and Supply Chain Management | Technology and Innovation | Transportation
Included in
Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons, Technology and Innovation Commons, Transportation Commons