Projects

There are several smart mobility projects and pilots ongoing and completed in Helsinki - primarily focused in the West Harbour area and Jätkäsaari. The different cases include smaller experiments as well as bigger projects with different research aspects (e.g. EU projects).
URBANE project logo

URBANE

Companies: LMAD, DB Schenker, Soben/TwinswHeel

The Horizon project URBANE is looking for solutions for improving city logistics. In Helsinki, piloting in 2023-2024 will be focused especially on autonomous delivery solutions.

Goal: Developing and piloting alternative (autonomous) last mile delivery solutions

Schedule: 9/2022-2/2026 (pilots in 2023-2024)

Budget: Total budget 10 M€ (1,2 M€ for the partners involved in Helsinki pilot)

Suvi Vähä-Sipilä (Forum Virium Helsinki)

The URBANE project is aimed at developing a replication and scale-up model for successfully replicating smart green last-mile delivery solutions. It will use a PI-inspired innovation framework and digital twins with real life pilots in different cities around Europe. The activities in Helsinki are focused on developing and testing sustainable and viable last mile delivery solutions, and particularly autonomous systems. The Helsinki pilot partners include LMAD (Last Mile Autonomous Delivery, operating an autonomous system), DB Schenker (as the logistics operator) and Soben/TwinswHeel (as a provider of the autonomous platform) with Forum Virium Helsinki managing the pilot with the support of Helsinki/Mobility Lab.

DVECE project logo

Dynamic Visualizations to Enhance Citizens’ Engagement (DVECE)

Partners:  City of Helsinki; Forum Virium Helsinki Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, CERTH (Greece) Breda University of Applied Sciences (the Netherlands)

The project is building a bridge between the digital twin of Helsinki and the Decidim feedback channel and experimenting with the practical implementation of their integration. Co-creation workshops will also be used to collect ideas for providing feedback. The project will focus on vulnerable groups.

Timetable: 1/2022-12/2022

Budget:  The project is supported by EIT Urban Mobility, and Helsinki’s pilot is also co-funded by the City of Helsinki. The project has a total budget of EUR 186,825, of which Forum Virium Helsinki’s share is EUR 61,825.

Suvi Vähä-Sipilä (Forum Virium Helsinki)

https://forumvirium.fi/en/dvece/

https://forumvirium.fi/en/dvece/

The DVECE project pilots the use of innovative and dynamic visualisation tools within the context of traffic and mobility. The project is testing whether feedback data, ideas and suggestions concerning traffic and mobility can be collected through the City of Helsinki 3D model on the Decidim platform.

An urban block in Jätkäsaari from above

Mobility Digital Twin as Enabler of Services (LiiDi2)

Partners: Forum Virium Helsinki, Stara

The project, LiiDi2, aims to create new business opportunities with mobility digital twins and models for collecting and utilising data.

Goal: Developing and piloting innovative data acquisition models and mobility digital twins

8/2021-8/2023

Budget: 872k€ (ERDF, REACT-EU)

Janne Rinne (Forum Virium Helsinki)

The project includes data collection pilots and the development of innovative data acquisition models especially in the context of Stara, the Helsinki City Construction Services and their operations.

Picture of coastline

MaaS for the waterways (Vesiliikenteen MaaS)

Forum Virium Helsinki, City of Helsinki

The project aimed to improve the digital readiness and capabilities of maritime service providers (e.g. boat and ferry services) for improving business through modern ticketing solutions and shared data.

Goal: Improving the digital capabilities of maritime MaaS services

01/2021-12/2021

235 k€

Helmi Tuori (Forum Virium Helsinki)

The project addresses the City of Helsinki’s maritime strategy in making the archipelago more accessible through digitalization as well as helps in developing APIs and platforms supporting business ecosystems.

Map with navigation route

Logistics accessibility data (LoSaDa)

Forum Virium Helsinki & Tieke ry

The Logistics Accessibility Data project aims to solve challenges in local distribution by making reachability information available as open, standardised data to logistics operators.

Goal: Improving the service level and operational efficiency of logistics companies.

11/2020-05/2022

352 k€

Raimo Tengvall (Forum Virium Helsinki)

The project’s objective is to create an operating model for companies to convey last mile delivery information and details to drivers as open data. It will promote the operating conditions and improve cost efficiency of logistics operations, improve the service levels for the customers and reduce the environmental effects through optimization (e.g. reduced time spent looking for parking spots).

The data is stored and available in OpenStreetMap and for demonstration purposes an example application app.gatesolve.com was created. It visualises entrances and routes of last 50 meters to them. In addition to the navigation application, another (open source) application, Open Logistics Map (OLMAP), is available for collecting such data. 

A final report for the project can be found from Tieke’s web site here.  

View from above

SmashHit

Forum Virium Helsinki, Infotripla, Volkswagen, ...

The SmashHit (Smart Dispatcher for Secure and Controlled Sharing of Distributed Personal and Industrial Data) project addresses secure and trusted sharing of vehicle data.

Addressing challenges of secure and trusted use of connected vehicle data.

1/2020-12/2022

6,9M€ total (Horizon 2020)

Piia Hanhirova (Forum Virium Helsinki)

Relevant aspects developed and tested in Helsinki include MyData and piloting cases such as using data to address blind spots behind corners in the Jätkäsaari area.

AI 4 Cities logo

AI4CITIES – AI Accelerating Cities Transition to Carbon Neutrality

Forum Virium Helsinki Ltd, Gemeente Amsterdam, Cap Digital, Kobenhavns kommune, Tallinna Linn, Stavanger kommune, and ICLEI European Secretariat GMBH + pilot companies through open tendering

AI4Cities is a European Pre-Commercial Procurement project for AI solutions utilising data to support climate action commitments. It is focused on energy and mobility.

Goals Finding AI solutions tackling climate issues.

Timetable 1/2020 - 12/2022

Budget 6,6M€

Contacts Kaisa Sibelius, Forum Virium Helsinki

The project does open market consultation to find and then procure AI pilots addressing the energy and mobility related needs of cities.  Request for tenders was published at the end of 2020.

Map of Jätkäsaari with information points for last 50 meter routing

Last 50m logistics routing

Forum Virium Helsinki

Finished Q4/2020 The New solutions in city logistics 6Aika project has collected detailed data on routes to buildings and entrances. The purpose of the data is to make it easier to find the right entrance and to speed up the delivery of goods, for example.

Goals Making it easier to find the right entrances for deliveries.

Contacts Aapo Rista & Johan Lindqvist, Forum Virium Helsinki

The data is stored and available in OpenStreetMap and for demonstration purposes an example application app.gatesolve.com is created. It visualises entrances and routes of last 50 meters to them. More information on the collected data and a preview service is available in the Materials and Data section.

The development done in this project is continued in 2021-2022 in the Logistics Accessibility Data project.

Radar view of Jätkäsaari Smart Junction

Jätkäsaari Smart Junction

  • Conveqs
  • Aalto University
  • Port of Helsinki
  • City of Helsinki
  • PHOTO: Ramboll Finland Oy

Jätkäsaari Smart Junction project improves the traffic situation awareness and develops simulation models for optimizing traffic lights for better traffic fluency. It uses cameras and radars installed at the intersections from the bottleneck of Mechelininkatu/Hietalahdenkatu and Jätkäsaarenlaituri towards Länsiväylä. The radar data can be used by third parties as well.

Goals

Generate open data on traffic situation for third parties, and using this data to find ways of improving traffic fluency in the harbour area with the help of AI.

Duration

Q4/2019 - Q4/2021

Funding

59 500€ from Jätkäsaari Mobility Lab for equipment procurement, installation and consultation services for the opening of data + investments in traffic monitoring sensors. 50 000€ from Port of Helsinki for AI based traffic optimization solutions.

Contacts

Mikko Lehtonen (City of Helsinki)

This data feeds to further research on possibilities to improve traffic fluency with the help of traffic signal optimization based on the application of AI. The area monitored by the first setup near the Clarion hotel is illustrated in this image of the installation, camera view and radar. Open data from the radars is available for third party development purposes, more information on it can be found here.

Two people lying in show with fatbikes next to them

UIA HOPE – Air quality

  • City of Helsinki; Forum Virium Helsinki
  • University of Helsinki; Vaisala Plc
  • Helsinki Region Environmental Services
  • Finnish Meteorological Institute
  • Useless Company Ltd

HOPE empowers citizens to develop their own neighbourhoods with differing air quality challenges. Engaging citizens improves the data available and the relevance of the mitigation activities.

GOALS

Change that the project wants to achieve is that citizens find air quality issues easily relatable and understandable.

Timetable

11/2018 - 04/2022

Budget

Total ERDF budget granted EUR 4,561,260.28

Contact Jussi Kulonpalo (City of Helsinki)

Project focuses on port-related traffic in Jätkäsaari, street canyons and 40K daily vehicles in Mäkelänkatu-Kumpula area, and domestic wood-burning in combination with adjacent main roads in Pakila.

The overall challenge is that measuring, analysis and dissemination of air quality data in any given location is very complicated and contaminated with error. Lack of real-time and reliable high resolution data has led to a situation where finding targeted interventions that take into account our citizens and their needs while also targeting specific pollution concentrations is missing for all European cities.