The excitement surrounding driverless cars is unparalleled, to the point where we’ve begun associating autonomous mobility to just driverless cars. But this technology can offer us so much more than just robotaxis.
Founded in 2019, Dubai-based Evocargo offers end-to-end logistics services covering freight and fleet management, platform development and production, and infrastructure deployment. It’s working to solve global logistics and last-mile delivery problems including reducing the cost of transportation, unpredictable service quality, and improving safety and air pollution.
Its current line-up includes the Evocargo EVO.1 unmanned vehicle that maximises cargo transportation volume and payload without air pollution.
“Evocargo produces autonomous trucks based on low-cost computing visual perception, which means that there is no LiDAR on our N1-class vehicles,” says Andrey Bolshakov, Evocargo’s founder and Chief Business Development Officer.
EVOCargo CEO Andrey Bolshakov
“Our unmanned vehicles can be used in both indoor as well as outdoor conditions. Moreover, there are almost no pre-requirements for the infrastructure. Evocargo’s 37 patents cover algorithms across areas such as visual positioning, automatic mapping, calibration and integration of sensors and cameras, methods for choosing a safe speed of movement and setting parameters for a dynamic environment model.
“We do not use LiDARs in Evocargo EVO.1 and therefore, we have quite advanced visual positioning algorithms,” continues Bolshakov. “We use cameras to identify signs surrounding the autonomous vehicle. An example of this could be road surface markings and road edges. We then compare these signs with a terrain map. This is how the vehicle understands where it is. We also make use of image retrieval technology for matching images in a database with the images received from cameras. This is how the platform understands its exact location.”
Evocargo’s technology can be deployed across a whole range of spaces, from logistics and manufacturing centres to warehouses and hospitals.
“Our engineers come from scientific backgrounds and have a deep interest in different types of robotics, Artificial Intelligence and so on. After we deep-dived into the field of robotics and analysed the autonomous vehicles market around the world, we came to the conclusion that due to regulation, autonomous logistics will be adopted much earlier than the passenger segment and we can combine our technologies with automotive manufacturing for the best cargo transportation service,” explains Bolshakov.
Recently, Evocargo demonstrated its unmanned logistics platform EVO.1 at EXPO 2020 Dubai, which caught many admiring glances.
The EVO.1 “is now ready for testing with our preferred clients,” says Bolshakov. “In 2020, we had several commercial cases with the EVO.1, but at Dubai, we showcased a new vehicle where we use both electric and hydrogen power to maximise its running distance. We believe that using hydrogen technologies in the future will make it more beneficial for our clients from a service economy and an ecological point of view.”
Evocargo has also been working on the EVO.3, a long-haul vehicle, as well as its Hub2Hub service, where the company will be delivering goods between the logistics hubs close to highways.
Bolshakov explains that the vision for EVO.3 is the same as EVO.1 – electric, but with a hydrogen range extender as an option – as well as fully autonomous.
Evocargo also offers unmanned vehicles and freight management services. “At the moment,” says Bolshakov, “we have a ready for use all-electric unmanned truck Evocargo EVO.1 and seven commercial projects at our customers’ territories, such as a logistics hub of a well-known international logistics company, industrial warehouses and even hospitals.”
“We offer a full-package service based on unmanned logistics platforms and software, which include all kinds of mobile and embedded apps, APIs for integration to warehouse management systems, transportation management systems, and our own dispatching solution. On top of that, we are providing deployment, maintenance, and transportation as a part of ongoing service with our highly skilled personnel. All of that makes it possible to deploy a vehicle on a new facility in just a few days and get it working autonomously around the clock.”
“Our headquarters is located in Dubai, but that aside, we also have a research and development centre in Moscow and production facilities in Finland,” explains Bolshakov. “We are now ready for global expansion and have already started negotiations with new partners in the European Union and the US.”
“At the end of October 2021, Evocargo signed a cooperation agreement with Road Transport Authority (RTA), Dubai to showcase and initiate trials of autonomous logistics via its unmanned all-electric hydrogen vehicles. At the moment, we are working carefully to find the proper client and facility to fully showcase the potential of our technology.”
Despite the pandemic and silicon chip crisis, Evocargo has several challenging milestones for the coming year.
“First off, we want to enlarge the fleet of our own EVO.1 to four or five times its present size and provide service on them in Europe and the US. Moreover, we also want to showcase the EVO.3 in real facilities and working in real conditions. All of that achieved together will bring us into a bigger market in the next few years,” Bolshakov says.
Keyword: Dubai’s Evocargo Sets The Stage for Autonomous Trucks – Founder Andrey Bolshakov