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  • serafeimzormpas
  • May 29, 2024
  • 2 min read

Updated: Jul 25, 2025


Preparing the ground for AUTonomous Multimodal SUPply Chains


AUTOSUP will drive the industrial transition to seamless multimodal automatic freight transport and enhance the operation of hubs as nodes in a Physical Internet logistics network.


A multidisciplinary team of 17 partners including four organisations engaging in the activities their ecosystems of Transport and Logistics stakeholders will:


  • Define automation requirements for seamless multimodal automatic freight transport.

  • Empower stakeholders with an open, ready-to-use data-driven Decision Support System to help them implement and deploy automated processes and solutions and make strategic decisions about future investments. The systems will support undertaking feasibility studies via simulation to assess the efficiencies and impact of new solutions, whilst considering sustainability, financial and social impacts.

  • Support the transition path to automation in two Living Hubs (Antwerp and Trieste ports), focusing on the link of the two large transport nodes with road corridors, rail, inland waterways and airports, covering 6 diverse use cases.

  • Design new operational, governance and organisational change management models for autonomous logistics that incentivise cross-mode collaboration and reduce investment costs.

  • Validate operational and cost efficiencies of solutions via feasibility analysis, impact assessment and the engagement of representative stakeholders.

  • Establish a strategic and cohesive alliance and thematic working group for the alignment of multimodal automation adoption roadmaps across rail, road, aviation, waterborne and alternative innovative modes of transport and contribute to lowering automation adoption barriers through comprehensive transition guidelines, capacity-building sessions and policy recommendations.


AUTOSUP integrates social innovation practices in research to foster automation adoption and enhance safety, accounting for the workforce dynamics and skills needed for the transition to autonomous operations.


Our Role


Frontier Innovations is developing the Digital Twins and simulation models for the AUTOSUP Project's two Living Hubs (Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Port of Trieste) in order to evaluate the costs and benefits of various types of interventions and automations, including:

  • Use of automated trucks to move containers.

  • Automated rail wagon inspection and maintenance.

  • Shifting traffic to night-time to avoid congestion.

  • Optimize the location of park and ride hubs to be developed in the future.

  • Replace diesel shunting locomotives with automated MagRail ones.


Frontier Innovations models include microscopic and mesoscopic simulations that output a number of Key Performance Indicators:

  • Average trip time per container.

  • Total time to process a container from the time it arrives at the living hub to the time it leaves it.

  • Waiting time during different legs of a container's trip and at different processes (loading, unloading, customs clearance, etc.).

  • Fuel or electricity consumed, depending on the type of vehicle.

  • Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

  • Other atmospheric pollutant emissions (e.g., particulates, NOx, etc.).

  • Noise levels.


Example of model output per vehicle per second of simulation time:



AUTOSUP Facts & Figures


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