On 6th and 7th June, the University hosted the kick-off meeting of the new European project in the field of logistics called LOGISTAR (Enhanced data management techniques for real time logistics planning and scheduling), coordinated by the Faculty of Engineering and DeustoTech-Fundación Deusto, which deals with the Internet of things and artificial intelligence at the service of improving logistics processes. This initiative, in which 15 partners from 8 countries participate, consolidates the successful trajectory of joint internationalisation between both Deusto centres.

After a few months of negotiation with the European Commission, the project officially starts as one of the two proposals funded under the topic MG-5-2-2-2017: Innovative ICT solutions for future logistics operations within the Transport Work Programme, as part of Societal Challenges of Horizon 2020. Three years of intensive research work aimed at improving the collaboration of all agents involved in the logistics supply chain.

Even in the age of supply chain digitalisation, many inefficiencies remain in logistics transport, such as empty journeys, long loading times and high operating costs. Taking advantage of the fact that there are more and more systems that collect data from the different agents involved in the value chain and based on the premise that sharing information from the different processes benefits all parties, LOGISTAR aims to provide an ideal scenario for planning and optimising transport operations in real time.

In this sense, and with the objective of responding to the needs of the sector, the project will develop a decision-making tool for the various agents in involved in the supply chain: freight transport operators, their customers, industries and other stakeholders such as warehouses or infrastructure managers.

R&D contribution

The project addresses several advances beyond the state of the art in information processing: parallel hybrid metaheuristics for optimization, research led by Deusto- DeustoTech, Artificial Intelligence focused on prediction, responsibility of the University Collegue Cork, and automatic negotiation techniques and constraint satisfaction problem solving techniques, by the Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC.

The resulting platform will provide a control and decision support tool for logistics operations that will help to improve load factors or loading processes, among others. The system will also improve dynamic route planning and real-time freight information. To test its effectiveness, LOGISTAR will be validated in a real environment in 3 Living Labs: in the UK, Belgium and Italy, led by Nestlé, Ahlers and Zailog, respectively.

Consortium and budget

With a budget of 4.9 M€, 15 partners from 8 countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, England, Ireland, Italy, Serbia and Spain) are participating in Logistar. The scientific participation of Deusto, which will receive a total of €811,000, will focus on the development of a global logistics planning and freight allocation system that aims to optimise the freight transport network for horizontal collaboration, transshipment planning and the programming of intermodal distribution nodes.

The team includes researchers from the Faculty of Engineering, DeustoTech Mobility and the Ikerbasque Foundation. Professor and researcher Enrique Onieva is its scientific and technological manager and, in turn, the coordinator of the project.

The LOGISTAR project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 769142