Investigating Ongoing and Future Research Activities for the Advancement of Intelligent Access in Road Freight Transportation, A study of Intelligent Access in the Context of Digitization and Automation: Opportunities for Intelligent Transport Systems and National Road Authorities

Abstract

The purpose of the master thesis project was to research the potential role of Intelligent Access (IA) in automation and digitization in road freight transportation by covering how IA can strengthen ongoing or future research activities in road freight transportation, and how these could help National Road Authorities (NRAs) in better utilizing existing infrastructure. The study aims to provide answers to the following research questions: What are the characteristics of IA in road freight transportation? What are the ongoing and future research activities in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and how could these contribute to IA? The research provided a detailed state-of-the-art for ongoing and future planned research activities in ITS that relate to IA. A total of 86 activities were found and ranked by a scoring system based on the abstract of each research activity by considering selected search words (ITS, IA, CCAM, Cooperative, Smart Infrastructure, Automation, Connectivity, Data, Road, Trucks, Freight, and High-Capacity Transportation (HCT)), in addition to the opinion of the two authors and based on literature study. To answer the research questions stated above, a total of 12 interviews were conducted. The interviewees were 6 experts in the area of IA and 6 project coordinators from the identified and selected research activities. The findings reveal that little information regarding future research activities was obtained since these are still in an early stage of development. In contrast, ongoing research activities are well-documented in databases, complete with abstracts, and have been organized and validated by institutions, which justifies their funding. In addition to this, further research to support the development of IA is needed, as none of the research activities even included the search word IA in their project abstracts or on the websites. For the characteristics of IA in road freight transportation, four analysis words (Smart Infrastructure, Connectivity, Data, and Automation) were asked to each interviewee to check their relevance and how they could contribute to IA. All recurring insights for each analysis word were collected and further analyzed. Consequently, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of IA definition and its value within road freight transportation. The findings offer valuable guidance for NRAs and members looking to optimize road freight transportation by ensuring “the right vehicle on the right road at the right time”.