EDAG to showcase multi-functional, fully autonomous robot vehicle at IAA 2019

EDAG Group, the leading engineering service provider will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2019. As part of its plans for the future, the company will be hosting the world premiere of the 'EDAG CityBot' concept car – a fully autonomous, networked robot vehicle which, with its numerous trailer and rucksack modules, is capable of handling any transport and work situations in urban areas, and is also in motion 24/7 at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2019 (IAA 2019).

"The city of the future must become clean, safe, worth living in, friendly, quiet and smart. For the EDAG CityBot, we combined our engineering competencies from the vehicle engineering, electrics/electronics and production solutions segments: this makes the EDAG CityBot much more than just a design study: it really is a game changer, a mobility concept with its own ecosystem," said Cosimo De Carlo, CEO of the EDAG Group.

Apart from the EDAG CityBot, the company will also be showing ten innovations from the fields of digitalisation, networking, lightweight design and e-mobility on its Walk of Innovations in Frankfurt.

Multi-mode mobility concept
The EDAG CityBot is a multi-functional, fully autonomous robot vehicle with swarm intelligence, which is powered by an emission-free fuel cell drive. The company says thanks to its modularity and multi-functionality, the EDAG CityBot can be operated around the clock and, according to requirements, configured as a passenger cell, cargo carrier or city cleaning device by fitting add-on modules . An intelligent alternative to individual transport, and one that makes clever use of autonomous driving for various applications in urban mobility.

In conjunction with the platform technology for the Internet of Things (IoT) and, for example, the digital micro-payment solutions of EDAG partner IOTA, the EDAG CityBot will offer not only new, autonomous transport and working vehicles, but also possible new business models. This the company says is what essentially sets the EDAG CityBot apart from other known autonomous vehicle concepts for the city of the future. The concept is targeted at all mobility actors in the new ecosystem: OEMs, city architects and planners, infrastructure organisations, traffic, waste disposal and transport companies, municipal facilities and logisticians.

EDAG says in the future, city dwellers will enjoy stress-free, congestion-free mobility, and be able to live in a zero-emission city. The EDAG CityBot will be displayed at the IAA with the module of a lounge-like passenger transporter — just one example of a number of possible uses it can be put to in urban areas.

On the Walk of Innovations, the EDAG will be presenting ten of its own innovation impulses to open the discussion of digitalisation, integral security, electrification, 3D printing and lightweight materials with the industry's important decision makers.

The exhibits include a touch steering wheel which makes use of interactive, screen-based user interfaces to replace conventional switches. With the mobile solution EDscene, the EDAG Group will present a system for automating test procedures for the validation of the functions of ADAS systems. DiFoRem, a solution developed by EDAG specialists that uses artificial intelligence to facilitate real time image processing. The StaVari project on show on the Walk of Innovations demonstrates how additive manufacturing can be used in steel construction. With ScaleBatt, an in-house development, the EDAG Group will exhibit a scalable, minimum-cost battery box with digital validation and VR technologies for OEMs and international startups.