#	Pagina
attuale pagina	/open-h2020/projects/198401/results.html

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DuaLine (The validation, certification and industrial testing of advanced road marking retro reflectance (RL) measuring equipment (RetroTek-M) for the global market.)

Teaser

Summary

RMS Ltd has developed road marking retro reflectance (RL) measuring equipment (RetroTek-M and RetroTek-MU) for the global market which will dramatically reduce the time required to survey road lines. RetroTek will provide upto a 50% reduction in the cost of roadline inspection by performing a two line inspection (one either side of a road lane) on one pass, compared to single line inspection by the current state of the art. Customers such as Road Marking Contractors, Road Survey Companies and Road Authorities are requesting improvements in RL measuring equipment which RetroTek provide.
Commercial Objectives including completion of a detailed market analysis, product commercialisation plan and engaging and agreeing terms with suitable channel partners and distributors and achieving product certification for applicable markets. Aligning suitable customers with product data and engaging with a view to product sale
Technical Objectives which involve solving technical issues regarding the European and American systems and ultimately delivering products that exceed the minimum requirements for both markets and are adequately tested to prove performance, and to engage with independent system performance certification bodies to independently certify RetroTek performance. In addition to meet product documentation and support infrastructure needs to ensure a good customer experience when the product is received and used.

Work performed

WP1 is project management and work required for this work package included general project planning, risk and project management and early identification and resolution of potential issues.
WP2 involves market analysis & the generation of commercial reports and plans. This involved attending many trade shows, analysing market reports, communicating with potential customers and presenting RetroTek products and soliciting feedback from influencers in the target markets. . The final part of this work package was to secure sales/distribution partners in Europe & USA markets, which was completed.

WP3 is product development and certification for the European system. Work for the European Product consisted of completion of the product, Product quality, significant testing and finally product test and certification by a 3rd party certification organisation. For product completion work including optics design, electronics design, software design, User Interface design and development, mechanical design quality planning & testing, vehicle mounting design, EN1436 Geometry compliance, calibration processes and prototype building was all completed.
RetroTek-M was subjected to all required accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility tests which were passed by this certification organisation.

WP4 is product development and certification for the USA system. A new Illumination engine was developed and enhanced electronics control and software algorithms and systems. Product performance and road testing, 3rd party product performance testing and safety standard EN60950 testing was also completed. Additional camera and optical hardware and integrations software was added to the system combined with algorithms to provide colour information and colour video.

WP5 Product documentation and customer support was required for this work package. Comprehensive product manuals were created for both European and American products, User instruction manuals, maintenance manuals, and other necessary support documentation. A complete product support infrastructure was developed, consisting of support plans, support department, Support software management tools and spare parts management and field replacement planning.
WP6 is exploitation and dissemination. Work in the area of exploitation and dissemination is closely linked with work completed in WP2. A website was created early in the project and has been maintained throughout. An exploitation and dissemination plan was created and worked on during the project which included attending several conferences and trade shows/exhibitions in the capacity as a visitor and as an exhibitor/presenter.

Overview of the results.
The Results of Project Dualine are in line with and have exceeded planned outcomes for the project. Reflective Measurement Systems have successfully completed products for the European market (RetroTek-M) and for the American Market (RetroTek-MU). Both products have been subjected to rigorous testing and have been independently tested and certified by leaders in the retro-reflection measurement industry. Reflective Measurement systems have successfully sold two systems in Europe, are in the process of a sales evaluation in America and have active enquiries in several other countries at present. A commercial partner has been signed up in Europe and in America and there is a robust support process in place for any products in the field. Road maintenance companies can now purchase RetroTek products and reap the benefit of reducing the survey time required to measure road lines enabling a much speedier process transforming road surfaces from poor road lines to repaired lines ultimately improving road safety for driver.

Final results

Enhance the potential profitability and growth performance of RMS Ltd as the RetroTek-â„¢ technology is brought to a point of industrial readiness, thus enabling RMS ltd to seize a significant European, American global business opportunity.
Enabling & facilitating market uptake and distribution of the RetroTek-â„¢ technology which delivers innovations tackling specific challenges - notably those detailed in MG8.1-2014: Smarter design construction & maintenance, as follows:

Monitoring and management systems increasing infrastructure capacity and optimise EU structural funds for maintenance costs for all transport modes
The use of RetroTek-Mâ„¢ will halve the time required for inspection vehicles relative to current methods thus doubling their capacity.
Regular inspection & real-time results will enable predictive estimation of the reapplication of road markings & RPMS hence optimising EU mainte-nance costs
Real-time results & data analysis significantly reduces the time involved in post-processing data analysis, saving money in the maintenance process

RetroTek-Mâ„¢ is easy to operate, fits to any vehicle and provides real-time results. Using the technology the task of inspection becomes easier and more cost efficient resulting in more inspections leading to enhanced per-formance and reliability of road markings.
RetroTek-Mâ„¢ offers considerable cost-effectiveness improvement over current systems and will inspect double the amount of lines at the same cost as the current side-mounted systems.
There are significant reductions in CO2 emissions due to less traffic con-gestion (no road closures necessary), less miles travelled by the inspection teams and also as RetroTek-Mâ„¢ fits on smaller vans & cars, they are more economical to run.
There is also a significant benefit in the reduced number of road traffic accidents which have been prevented due to improvement in the ability of a driver to see the road markings particularly at night.

The Dualine project has enabled the company to start dialogue with industrial partners interested in developing technology for autonomous vehicles which is predicted to be a huge growth area in the automotive market in the future.