Infrastructure and systems
Transitioning to sustainable, adaptive, resilience driven transportation networks is of paramount importance to provide agility and cater for future uncertainties and unknowns.
Encapsulating the interdependencies across the system-of-systems transportation infrastructure and establishing and evaluating the risks to people, process, information and technologies will enable vulnerabilities and fragilities to be identified, ensuring future-proof robustness, safety in implementation and resilient capabilities in service provision.
Our research addresses the most challenging issues facing road, rail, air and maritime transport, at the interface between infrastructure, vehicles and humans. We are recognised around the world for highly successful, close working relationships with business and industry, civil and vehicle engineers, transport planners, policy makers, and people who need the most sustainable, safe and healthy transport for the future.
Preparing UK motorways for CAVs
We lead a £1M project with Highways England and Galliford Try to address the challenges of ensuring the UK’s motorway network is ready for the safe and efficient operations of CAVs. CAVIAR (Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: Infrastructure Appraisal Readiness) is developing a platform to assess if CAVs can navigate safely through the existing configurations of construction zones. The research will significantly further understanding of the implications for highway infrastructure on a future increase in the quantity of CAVs on the Strategic Road Network.
Sustainable supply chains
Supported by international funding, we have worked with academic partners and industrial stakeholders worldwide to develop SUSTAIN. The toolkit allows manufacturing and logistics companies to assess their sustainability performance based on multi-dimensional KPIs, identify areas for improvement, benchmark their performance in the sector, and use the lowest cost interventions and best practices to improve.
Track switch innovation
We have delivered innovative rail track switching technology with the potential to improve reliability and safety, reduce maintenance costs, and boost capacity on rail networks. With the support of the RSSB (Rail Safety and Standards Board) and the Government, the technology has been demonstrated in a working environment – significantly beyond where universities normally work. We are now looking to engage with commercial partners to ensure deployment of the technology on the UK and international rail networks.
Virgin Park and Charge 2
We are working on an Innovate UK funded project to encourage the adoption and implementation of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs). The Virgin Media Park and Charge project (VPACH2) involves a wide network of commercial and local authority partners working together to mobilise the deployment of on-street charging solutions in residential areas. Our contribution to the project includes a novel site selection tool for identifying optimal locations for the charging infrastructure, as well as research and insight on the levels of acceptance of EV infrastructure adoption by local households and communities and the benefits and challenges associated with it.
Meet the experts
The experts below represent the broad interests of our researchers in infrastructure and systems. We look forward to hearing from you.
