The Smart Road Project at ENEA

The Smart Road is a rather fuzzy concept which has gained the limelight in recent years together with its companions: Smart City, Smart District, Smart Building, Smart Home. They all describe the concept of pervasive computing: all the parts of the nowadays life can be made smart with the help of some processing power, communication capabilities and, above all, data. The trigger (and effect) of this smart wave is the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), i.e. the possibility to equip nearly every electronic device with communication and elaborative powers, together with an ever decreasing cost The Smart Road concept has been instantiated and implemented in different ways in different places, but it intimately linked to the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) framework [1]. The idea is that transport and mobility must be reconsidered as an integrated and above all dynamic system where control, information and management operate synergistically and synchronously.

Three laboratories of ENEA and the Engineering Dept. of the University of Perugia are currently involved in a multidisciplinary project to set up an experimental Smart Road in order to study applications and solutions for a better quality of life and energy saving in the framework of the Triennial Plan 2019-2021 of the National Research on the Electrical System (Piano Triennale 2019-2021 sistema elettrico nazionale), funded by the Italian M Economic Development