Land drones able to guarantee the mobility of goods and the necessary logistics operations – also in terms of circular economy and shared logistics – without the help of the driver. The innovation initiative organized by the Mobility & Logistics and Retail Tech thematic areas of Federated Innovation @MIND, aimed at identifying the opportunities deriving from the use of autonomous driving in the field of last-mile logistics, goes in this direction. During a dedicate day the systems of the most promising global startups in the sector were presented, which will make available to Federated Innovation @MIND the latest models produced, in order to identify a pilot project for the experimentation that will start in 2023 within the MIND district.

The initiative was born in early 2022 from the synergy between two thematic areas of the Federated Innovation @MIND consortium (which brings together companies that intend to collaborate in a virtuous environment to accelerate the translation of ideas into new innovative products, processes and services): the Mobility & Logistics area (which includes Poste Italiane), aimed at creating sustainable and decarbonized urban mobility solutions, and Retail Tech (with Esselunga, Signify and VSBLTY), which aims to identify value-added services for consumers, new customer journey experiences, solutions to make the supply chain more resilient and sustainable.

The aim is to explore the opportunities offered by the digital technological ecosystem to develop a new model of autonomous driving with minimal environmental impact and that can deliver goods and products, leveraging the MIND district as a test bench. The innovation initiative aims to test and validate the technical feasibility of the self-driving mobility service model within MIND by 2023.

Federated Innovation @MIND model "Collaborate to compete"

The internal mobility model includes pedestrianization, cycling, a multimodal offer of public transport and shared transport services, sustainable (specifically electric) and innovative, driverless and high-tech freight logistics, also with regard to management, control and information systems.

The initiative is one of the results of the model on which Federated Innovation @MIND is based: "collaborate to compete". A model that goes beyond classic open innovation, aimed at generating research and innovation initiatives, encouraging technology transfer and the contamination of ideas on a platform open to the collaboration of all companies, universities and institutions involved, and with a legal structure to protect intellectual property.

Today, in addition to the presentation of driverless systems, included a Workshop aimed at identifying the main technological trends taking place in the autonomous driving sector and the opportunities for use in last mile delivery. With this in mind, a White Paper was presented on the state of the art of autonomous driving on the national scene, which traces how technologies influence the transport sector and the evolution that the sector will have by 2030, highlighting strengths and risks, commitment of public and private actors, legislation and solutions on the Italian and European market.

"Each of the 11 thematic areas in which Federated Innovation is divided @MINd is bearing fruit and creating concrete projects, which represent the excellence of innovation in Italy – says Tommaso Boralevi, President of Federated Innovation @MIND. – The initiative of the Mobility & Logistics and Retail Tech areas is proof of the effectiveness of the collaboration model on which Federated Innovation @MIND is based: a model that, as in this case, has allowed the companies involved to identify the best technological projects and startups to develop solutions that can successfully land on the market and make a difference."

"Terrestrial drones and more generally autonomous driving are nothing more than the paradigm necessary for the realization of a circular economy system based substantially on the sharing economy. In fact, the intelligent sharing of spaces (warehouses, loading/unloading pitches, docks, terminals), vehicles and loads can have an effect on our logistics system comparable to that of the transition of telephony systems from analog to digital. The advent of autonomous driving will make the leap towards using the vehicle more natural, without necessarily having exclusive ownership. In this scenario, the sharing of logistics platforms, proximity warehouses in the city and vehicles – as will happen in the MIND district – are very interesting drivers, already present today in the sector, which must be analyzed and studied in detail to provide companies and decision makers with the necessary elements for a targeted development that brings the central man back into the development model" concludes Massimo Marciani, Ambassador of the Mobility & Logistics area.

Who is Federated Innovation @MIND

Born within the MIND Milano Innovation District in February 2021, Federated Innovation @MIND is an innovative project that brings together companies that intend to collaborate in a virtuous environment to accelerate the translation of ideas into new products, processes and services that contribute to the economic relaunch of the country. Promoted by Lendlease as head of design and private development of MIND, with the contribution of Cariplo Factory as a facilitator of innovation processes, the model, in compliance with antitrust regulations, intends to go beyond open innovation and proprietary innovation, and is based on a unique legal framework that allows new ideas to be collected, projects and visions, to develop them quickly and linearly with predefined operating methods and procedures, in order to make them available to everyone, thus acting as a "developer of innovation". Federated Innovation @MIND is the culmination of the development of the MIND ecosystem that led to the creation of a new legal entity to guide and coordinate the process of creating innovation in MIND.