FreeCity

Urban traffic is characterized by high traffic density, congestion, local emissions and high land use. Its transport potential is neither coordinated nor fully exploited. The interdisciplinary project “Campus FreeCity” researches challenges and solution approaches for inner-city traffic problems using two “CityBot” vehicles, which are developed as part of the project for passenger and freight transport and implemented, operated and scientifically analyzed in the laboratory. The “CityBots” are fully autonomous, modular robotic vehicles whose drive module can perform a variety of tasks by being coupled with various utility modules such as passenger cells, cargo carriers or city cleaning equipment. This innovative and holistic approach increases utilization and maximizes ecological and economic efficiency. The chair Material Flow Management and Resource Economics focuses on the life cycle assessment of the production and use phase of the CityBots. The goal is to build a modular comparative life cycle assessment which enables CityBots module specific ecological evaluation.