Transportation for Smart Cities and New Districts

In recent years, the concept of a smart city has started to take shape in megacities like New York, Singapore, Barcelona, Tokyo, Moscow, Amsterdam, and many others. The key features of a smart city include innovation, intelligence, high technology, automation, sustainability, and comfort. We’ve explored the most promising technologies in these urban areas and examined how well string transport fits into this vision.

Main Objectives

The smart city strategy aims for a high level of collaboration among municipal, commercial, and private sectors. Typically, this involves a wide range of projects and initiatives focused on advancing digitization and the autonomy of urban management processes in real time. Global intelligent urbanization hinges on using the internet as another tool for comprehensive city organization, enhancing both economic and social life.

Promising programs that align with the smart city concept include the Internet of Things (IoT), smart cards, 5G technology, neural interfaces, computer 3D modeling, and virtual/augmented reality technologies. These innovations enable remote management of large datasets, from monitoring energy consumption to controlling traffic flow, providing access to services, and keeping tabs on technical communications.

Promising Technologies

A smart city, as a global innovation, requires a sequential development plan. The Intelligent Communities Forum (ICF), a worldwide research organization, registers hundreds of proposals each year aimed at improving the smart city concept. Among the most interesting projects are those that focus on applying radio frequency tags to urban infrastructure for effective tracking and management.

It’s worth noting the moving points of radio access that can interact with each other, creating wireless self-organizing networks. This technology boosts the capacity of transportation networks, ensures connectivity in dead zones, and lowers maintenance costs. In a more advanced version of mesh networks, the wireless devices themselves can handle data transmission, connecting in a “peer-to-peer” manner.

Specifically for the transportation sector, a technology called VLC (Visible Light Communication) has been developed, allowing vehicles to read information about road conditions through light signals from traffic lights and tail lights. Evaluating the reliability of this innovation is still complicated. However, there are simpler and safer transport technologies for managing traffic in smart cities—like the string transport system from UST Inc.

Alternative Approach

Overground string rail transport fits perfectly into the smart city concept. Sustainable trends like eco-friendliness and autonomy, central to their development strategy, are also relevant for uST transport and infrastructure complexes. Furthermore, UST Inc.’s technologies were initially designed as efficient and innovative alternatives to existing transport solutions.

For instance, the engineers have created a multi-layer positioning architecture that can pinpoint the location of rail drones with an accuracy of up to 5 centimeters. This technology relies on data from three different sources: GPS systems, RFID tags, and two-channel odometry.

With continuous data processing, UST Inc.’s multi-layer positioning allows for the monitoring of rail electric transport, checking the condition of the tracks, and detecting even the slightest deviations in the system. Additionally, surveillance modules are built into the string rail structure along its entire length, creating a continuous digital field with no blind spots. Real-time images from these modules are sent to the dispatcher, while the system swiftly reacts to any potential issues with the transport.

With precise positioning architecture from UST Inc., it becomes much more efficient to optimize the logistics of existing transport systems, managing passenger flow and adjusting service intervals to accommodate peak hours. This innovation is multifunctional, providing not only a customer-oriented approach but also conducting smart monitoring of the string rail structure in real time, displaying a digital overview of each section's condition and load.

Ready Technology for Implementation

In summary, many smart city technologies are still in the planning or beta testing stages, while UST’s transport and infrastructure complexes represent a fully ready-to-implement product. These systems align closely with smart city development strategies. The rail overpass integrates seamlessly into urban architecture without overloading existing roadways.

UST Inc.’s rail drones (uPods) consume minimal electricity, making them eco-friendly. They can reach speeds of up to 150 km/h, significantly faster than subway trains, thus enhancing urban mobility. Finally, the construction of UST’s transport and infrastructure complexes could boost tourism potential and create effective public transport solutions.