The SARTRE Project

 Safe Road Trains for the Environment, funded by the European Commission under the Framework 7 programme, aims to develop strategies and technologies to allow vehicle platoons to operate on normal public highways with significant environmental, safety and comfort benefits.

Sartre is led by Ricardo UK Ltd and comprises a collaboration between the following additional participating companies: Idiada and Robotiker-Tecnalia of Spain, Institut for Kraftfahrwesen Aachen (IKA) of Germany, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Volvo Car Corporation and Volvo Technology of Sweden.Play animation > click on the picture

The project aims to encourage a step change in personal transport usage by developing of environmental roadtrains called platoons.

Systems will be developed facilitating the safe adoption of road trains on un-modified public highways with interaction with other traffic.

A scheme will be developed whereby a lead vehicle with a professional driver will take responsibility for a platoon. Following vehicles will enter a semi-autonomous control mode that allows the driver of the following vehicle to do other things that would normally be prohibited for reasons of safety; for example, operate a phone, reading a book or watching a movie.