June 14 as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum programme KAMAZ launched the operations of its driverless trucks on the M-11 Neva highway between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
This marked the start of the first phase of the Unmanned Logistics Corridors project. KAMAZ deployed four digital long-haul tractors, which, as part of a semi-trailer train, will transport goods between the two cities.
The driverless trucks were developed on the basis of the KAMAZ-54901 long-haul tractor model equipped with communication, navigation, technical vision and incoming information analysis systems. The brakes, steering system, engine and automatic transmission are controlled using an electronic CAN bus.
The vehicles will be running a 650 km long route between logistics terminals in Moscow and St. Petersburg in a hub-to-hub mode without entering cities and towns. They will be operating 24/7 stopping only for loading/unloading, refuelling and undergoing maintenance operations like replacing filters, changing oil, etc.
A test engineer will control the process in the cabin ready to take over in case a need arises.
In the framework of the Unmanned Logistics Corridors project, a digital tween of the M-11 highway was developed by RosDorNII research institute and SoftTelematika, part of Telematika concern. The digital highway tween, the first of the kind in Russia, is built on the basis of the V2X communication technology (vehicle-to-everything).
Photo: courtesy of SoftTelematika