Aachen researchers to combine an autonomous electric bus with a cable car
The ‘Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components’ (PEM) at RWTH Aachen University has now created an important test setup for the project. Testing of a prototype will soon begin on this basis.
In the PEM project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, together with two other institutions at RWTH Aachen University, namely the Institute for High Frequency Electronics (HFE) and the Institute for Structural Mechanics and Lightweight Construction (SLA), as well as the municipality of Simmerath, the advantages of the two combined modes of transport electric bus and cable car are to be worked out and combined in an intermodal transport concept.
The history of ‘upBUS’ goes back several years: back in 2019, researchers at the SLA created a scaled-down wooden model to visualise the idea. In 2021, researchers from HFE and SLA then travelled to Wolfurt in Austria for a five-day trial, in particular to test the changeover process in which the cabin is transferred from the chassis to the cable car guide (see this video). In 2024, ‘upBUS’ was then granted funding totalling 3.2 million euros by the then Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.
With this budget, the project is now working flat out on a practical test: The process is to be trialled for the first time as early as August 2025 with the help of a so-called primotype. The aim is to dock the independent passenger cell module to the driving module for road operation so that it functions as an autonomous electric bus. And on the other hand, to transfer the passenger cell module to the cable hanger in a cable car station.
At the end of the project, a pre-series prototype will be built as a freight vehicle and tested in the field. Another prototype for transporting passengers, on the other hand, is to be developed digitally. The corresponding cabin should be able to transport up to ten passengers and have all the features of a classic public transport vehicle in terms of seating, barrier-free access, infotainment system and automatic door closing.
“The greatest technical challenge lies in the high degree of modularity,” said PEM Director Prof Achim Kampker. However, the project is extremely appealing and could create an innovative mode of transport. While cable cars score points for their short planning and construction times, low investment and operating costs and low energy consumption, their disadvantage is that they are tied to fixed routes. Autonomous electric buses, on the other hand, serve closely meshed networks, but remain tied to roads and therefore contribute to the formation of traffic jams. “As a cable car, the upBUS can bridge traffic bottlenecks or areas with difficult landscapes and then continue seamlessly as a bus without passengers having to change,” explained PEM manager Kampker.
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