Investigation on Optimal Mobility System using Axiomatic Design and Scoring Matrix: the “Drive Ability” Experiment

Abstract

The increase in the global population and the improvement of the life style of many poorer countries are leading to a relevant growth for mobility. Such increase in circulating vehicles would have a negative impact on environment pollution. Given this picture, the traditional internal combustion engine vehicles could not be the best solution for the future personal mobility. This problem is really critical especially for high population density cities, such as Firenze (Italy), where the large number of circulating vehicles must use a very old infrastructure that is constrained by all the historical sites widespread in the city, that are also very sensitive to air pollution. However, choosing between the possible mobility solutions could not be an easy task, also if using a structured approach. The challenge is, in fact, to assess a large number of variables for different solutions, process that could lead to a situation where all scenarios show pros and cons, and so all matrices will be decoupled and will not be possible to define which solution is the best. The aim of this paper is to define a new approach, based on a Scoring Matrix and on the Axiomatic Design, which overcomes this issue by using a multi-criteria evaluating strategy. This new approach has been tested on the city of Firenze (Italy) where the optimal mobility paradigm has been assessed from the sustainability point of view. As a result, the wireless charging system has been identified as the most suitable for the city and citizen needs. In addition, Axiomatic Design has been used to define how to overcame the technological barriers for its introduction: wireless charging introduction, in fact, could experience a stop due to the efficiency loss in case of misalignment. In this paper, the scenarios are introduced using the Axiomatic Design decomposition tree and the solution has been tested by using the information axiom.