Matryoshka Pilotless bus

"Matryoshka" is the platform of the pilotless commercial transport intended for transportation of passengers, loads and for work as the utility equipment. Development of the platform is conducted by the Volgabas Robo Lab company created by the entrepreneur Alexey Bakulin - the former cofounder and the CEO of producer of Volgabas buses.

The Volgabas Robo Lab parent company - Bakulin Motors Group - is a partner of the innovation center "Skolkovo".

Within the Matryoshka project it is going to release passenger M2B8 smart beads for transportation on 8−12 people. In development there is also a M2C6 vehicle for special transportations (mobile diagnostic complexes, the fire pumping systems, mobile drives of energy up to 200 kvch) and M2 Platform - open cargo platforms for different logistics, cargo vehicles with containers up to 3 CBM.

2017

Test runs of pilotless Matryoshka buses to Sochi

Prototypes of the Matryoshka platform pass tests on proving grounds Skolkovo and Sirius education center in Sochi. However on public roads innovation of domestic automotive industry did not appear yet — for this purpose in Russia the corresponding regulations^[1] are not developed^[2].

In September, 2017 in Vladivostok will let pilotless Matryoshka buses to public roads. Innovation of domestic automotive industry will ply near a campus of Far Eastern Federal University where there will take place the third East economic forum. It was said by the vice rector of DVFU Dmitry Zemtsov.

He told that systems will be tested in May-June. Specialists want to complete them by the beginning of the WEF that pilotless buses could carry foreign guests. Zemtsov is sure that the future forum is "a good occasion to speed up work on implementation in Russia of "UAVs' and to show the level of development of robotics in our country".

"Matryoshka" will receive a grant from Fund of support of the NTI projects

In February, 2017 the Agency of Strategic Initiatives (ASI) reported that the Matryoshka platform will get support within the road map Avtonet of the National Technology Initiative (NTI). At a meeting of the interdepartmental working group at presidium of Council for upgrade of economy and to the innovative development of the Russian Federation in February the decision to select a grant to 200 million rubles for project implementation "The special markets was made: robotic passenger traffic" within Avtonet. The ASI specified TAdviser that all designated amount of a grant intends for the Matryoshka project.

Within the project within two years Matryoshka developers are going to create technology of robotic transportations in the closed territories, having tested it in different climatic and weather conditions.

We will construct several prototypes of a pilotless system which will be integrated into the transport Matryoshka modular platform, - Alexey Bakulin, the CEO of "Volgabas Robo Lab" says.

Earlier the Matryoshka platform was tested in Skolkovo

Also reported to ASI that by 2018 the regulatory framework for certification and operation of pilotless vehicles on public roads should be created, according to the project implementation plan.

The Matryoshka platform in 2016 was tested in Skolkovo. In the innovation center note that tests continue: as of the beginning of 2017 the pilotless bus is tested in Sochi. In the spring of testing should proceed in the territory Skolkovo where the ultramodern route for pilotless vehicles will open.

By data Skolkovo, as of the beginning of year the preliminary portfolio of orders for the first serial copies of pilotless buses is built. Among potential clients – sporting venues, the airports, industrial enterprises, exhibition complexes.

2016

Plans to open the center of Research and Development to Skolkovo

In June, 2016 Skolkovo reported that in 2017 the developer of the "smart" bus — Bakulin Motors Group — is going to open in the territory of the innovation center a research and development center of robotic vehicles for passenger traffic. It will research in the field of intellectual robotics and autonomous vehicles. Will enter tasks of the center:

• development of a hardware and software system of autopiloting for problems of passenger traffic; * development of an intelligent system of management of traffic flows in the urban environment;
• development of solutions of the sphere of cyber security for vehicles;
• global positioning and navigation charts for vehicles.

At the initial stage it is going to involve in the center of Research and Development of 30 employees, and by 2018 in it about 100 specialists should work.

Specifications

"Matryoshka" consists of modular elements in which body elements, the power station and electric drives providing the movement are located. Vehicle chassis based on "Matryoshka" are the all-wheel drive, full-managed mekhatronny system working based on the ros operating system (robotic operation systems). All nodes and the functional systems are integrated by one information network under control of the central processing computer.

Technical characteristics of the platform

One of key differences of the platform from the Russian and western analogs developers call its universality: on the platform it is possible to deliver quickly any superstructure – passenger salon, the utility equipment, a cargo compartment, etc.

Dimensions of the Matryoshka platform

Robotics