It is expected that autonomous driving yard tractor that uses electricity as its fuel to be commercialized by 2024. Autonomous driving yard tractor is a large-scale vehicle that can move heavy freight by itself. This tractor will be equipped with in-country developed graphene based storage battery supercapacitor. It is the first time graphene supercapacitor is equipped in a yard tractor.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced that they will invest KRW 35 billion with Incheon Port Authority to run a project to demonstrate the development of a "South Korean autonomous driving freight transport system." Eight universities and companies will form a consortium to promote the project. The consortium included Seoul National University SNU R&D Foundation, ENPLUS, a secondary battery company, TOTAL SOFT BANK, an automation·logistics· information technology (IT), SM Line, shipping company, and Jeonbuk Institute of Automotive Convergence Technology. The period of the project is for a total of three years. They will develop electric powered autonomous driving tractors for two years and conducts demonstration for one year.
A yard tractor is a large-scale vehicle that transports containers between pier where ships dock and yards. They will develop the electric powered autonomous yard tractor by next year, and equip them with LiDAR and other communication control sensors to automatically avoid accident.
Autonomous driving technology will be developed by Seoul National University SNU R&D Foundation. TOTAL SOFT BANK will take parts in controlling technology within autonomous driving technology to reduce accident in the port.
South Korean yard tractor will be equipped with supercapacitor. Supercapacitor is a type of lithium-ion battery. Graphene based Supercapacitor developed by ENPLUS will be used.
It is the first time graphene-based supercapacitors are applied to yard tractors. Graphene supercapacitors have improved charging performance in low-temperature environments compared to existing lithium-based supercapacitors. By applying graphene, it reduces the deterioration of the charging and discharging performance of the large-capacity storage battery and improves the driving performance.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries will demonstrate the yard tractors in the SM Line Gyeong-in terminal. They will demonstrate them in various condition with actual environment, and with studies of yard tractor cases, port facility and environment analysis, they hope to accelerate commercialization.
By Staff Reporter Ji-woong Kim (jw0316@etnews.com)