TITAN

The growing complexity of distribution centres and yards, combined with demands for efficiency, safety, and sustainability, and ongoing driver shortages, make automated and teleoperated vehicles increasingly attractive within the logistics sector. However, involved costs of these machines, mixed traffic flows and interactions with personnel present challenges in risk management, acceptance, and regulations.

TITAN (Testing and Integration of Teleoperated and Automated vehicles for Next-gen yard logistics) aims to advance yard automation from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5/6 to 7/8 by demonstrating and testing teleoperation, automated docking, and connectivity solutions in real operational environments. The core objective is to bridge the gap between isolated pilot results and scalable commercial adoption. By integrating teleoperated and automated vehicles into live logistics settings, the consortium seeks to unlock improvements in throughput, reduce labour strain, and enhance overall sustainability.

Coordinated by HAN, the consortium aligns industrial and academic expertise to overcome hurdles in deploying Cooperative Automated Transport (CAT) at logistics yards. The project also emphasizes collaboration between research institutes (HAN, Fontys) and industrial partners (V-Tron, MST, Verhagen-Leiden, Jumbo Groenewegen, KPN, DPD, DAF, Werken-aan-Verbinding), ensuring that both practical needs and innovative research remain aligned.

Building on insights from previous projects (5G-Blueprint, SAVED, CAT4Yards, and CEYAS), TITAN adopts a multi-phase research and development approach. Through iterative testing at practical end users like DPD, the project will collect data to measure performance, safety and social impacts. Parallelly, digital twin simulations will replicate yard scenarios, allowing risk-free exploration of edge cases and operational strategies.

TITAN’s approach integrates technical, operational, and social aspects, providing guidelines for safe, efficient, and accepted CAT deployment. By elevating TRL 6 technologies to TRL 7/8, the project lays the groundwork for scaling automation in logistics, ensuring future readiness and global competitiveness for Europe.