Collaborative Research and Development project spotlight: Innovative location-based services in collaboration with Microlise
Prof Dario Landa Silva led on the Collaborative Optimisation in a Shared-Logistics Environment (COSLE) research and development project, with fleet management company Microlise. This project involved bringing together an array of data sets into a single environment in order to solve shared transportation logistics challenges. These large and busy data sets incorporated a combination of location, environmental, GPS and vehicle telematics data. This two-year project aimed to develop an innovative service to improve transport efficiencies and reduce carbon footprints for logistics firms, by reducing the number of empty freight runs. This was achieved through novel optimisation algorithms created by academics in the school at the University of Nottingham, combined with the use of image processing and mobile technologies. It seeked to integrate various optimisation techniques into a framework that facilitated collaboration in a shared freight transport logistics environment with the overall goal of reducing empty mileage.
Following completion of this project, Microlise is now collaborating on a four-year PhD studentship project within the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training, focusing on real-time data analytics and human factors for heavy goods vehicle drivers. They are also a member of the Horizon CDT Stakeholder Advisory Group.