i2CAT and Autopistas move forward with the implementation of DIMOS 5G use cases on the C-32 motorway

The i2CAT Research Centre and Autopistas, a Spanish subsidiary of Abertis, continue to make progress on DIMOS 5G, their pioneering project in connected and sustainable mobility. Over the coming months, they will continue to take steps towards the digitalisation of road infrastructure, beginning the practical implementation of their three key use cases, which will be validated in a real environment, specifically on the C-32 motorway.

The project, promoted by i2CAT and Autopistas, and funded under the UNICO Sectorial 5G 2023 programme with European NextGenerationEU funds, seeks to enable a new mobility model based on intelligent vehicle communication (5G and C-V2X), environmental sensorisation and the use of digital twins. The project also has the support of the Government of Catalonia.

During 2024, the consortium for the development of the project—which has a total investment of €591,837, of which almost half, €250,110, corresponds to aid from the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration—precisely defined the use cases and is currently working on the technical integration and development of prediction and decision-making algorithms.

Anna Carreras, head of the DIMOS 5G project at Autopistas, explains: “The use cases of the DIMOS project are perfectly aligned with the vision/mission of Autopistas and Abertis’ FRL to provide new safe and sustainable mobility services. In particular, the first two DIMOS use cases focus on proactive mobility management that allows dangerous situations to be anticipated in terms of both road safety and the environment.” She adds: “The third use case aims to exploit the full potential of V2X communications to speed up the passage of emergency vehicles in the event of emergencies in or near tunnels.”

“The aggregation of V2X data in the Digital Twin of the C-32 allows us a more natural transition to the future smart motorway thanks to ongoing developments, including improved decision-making engines by having greater knowledge of road users in real time and, on the other hand, a centralised cooperative manoeuvre generator capable of orchestrating and sending individual instructions to each vehicle, knowing the characteristics of all of them, thus facilitating the adoption of autonomous driving,” explains Bruno Cordero, researcher in the V2X research line at i2CAT.

Implementation of use cases

DIMOS 5G is facing a deployment of three scenarios that will enable the impact of the technologies applied to road safety, environmental sustainability, and emergency response to be validated:

1. Use case 1 – Improving road safety:

Sensors distributed along 56 km of the C-32 motorway will detect hazardous situations, such as traffic congestion or accidents, which will be managed by a prediction and analysis system. Alerts will be transmitted to vehicles using V2X technology, enabling drivers to anticipate behaviour and prevent incidents.

2. Use case 2 – Reduction of pollutant emissions:

CO₂, NOx, and particulate matter (PM) emissions will be monitored in real time and linked to traffic information. The system will generate mitigation strategies such as speed regulation or temporary diversions to reduce the environmental footprint of traffic.

3. Use case 3 – Prioritisation of emergency vehicles:

Through the connected infrastructure, a priority management system will be developed for ambulances and other emergency vehicles in critical sections such as tunnels. This implementation aims to reduce arrival times at the scene of an incident by coordinating the behaviour of other vehicles on the road.

Over the coming months, i2CAT and Autopistas will complete the development of the Digital Twin, expand the 5G communications infrastructure and begin field testing with connected vehicles. These actions will enable the technical validation of the proposed solutions and the extraction of recommendations applicable to future regulations on smart, sustainable and connected mobility.