Development Projects

NUVE-LAB provides research, development and testing capabilities from passage cars to heavy utility vehicles. It is a great environment to test machines operating on low-bearing soils under conditions similar to the final operating environment. Find out more about our ongoing utility vehicle development projects.

AutoWork - R&D environment for sustainable autonomous Work Machines

The integration of mobile machines into the work environment and -cycle is a particularly demanding task that requires special expertise, which has been developed in Finnish companies and research institutes for decades.

Our project aims to ensure that Finnish companies and research institutes maintain this competitive advantage and in the next few years will also be at the forefront of developing the world's leading testing methods and tools for autonomous work machines.

A key success factor will be the availability of appropriate, world-class research environments to support autonomous driving knowledge building. The ability to combine the physical and digital worlds using verified simulation models is a crucial pre-requisite for this.

Funding: funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture

GO! - Glocal interdynO Research Infrastructure

GO! project will release the NUVE-LAB's potential for the research of environmentally sustainable, autonomous commercial vehicles. Oulu University of Applied Sciences implements equipment needed to research and develop environmentally sustainable power sources and power trains. For electric vehicles, besides the energy supply via a battery and fuel cell, also the optimization of the powertrain is necessary. Additionally University of Oulu will complement the hardware infrastructure of the NUVE-LAB with software engineering related capabilities and digital twin creation and interoperability capabilities. These will enhance the agility and wide usability of the hardware capabilities towards easily configurable test settings, which will be also interoperable among different actors and machine elements on-site, as well as in interconnected scenarios with other labs in geographically distinct locations. This will enable digital design collaboration and shortens time to market.

Funding: funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU

PWR ON – E-powered work machines

PWR ON project will integrate a battery/fuel cell simulator into NUVE-LAB environment. Simulator will be taken in use by 11/2023.

With the battery simulator, electrical power transmissions and electrical working machines can be tested without actual traction batteries, which are the most valuable part of the electrical power transmissions. The battery simulator enables researching and testing of the different electrical power transmission solutions without investing to expensive traction batteries and without a risk of extremely hard extinguished battery fire.

PWR ON will also improve NUVE-LAB abilities to monitor the Device Under Test comprehensively.

Funding: funded by EAKR (2014)

SAMHand - Sustainable Autonomous Material Handling

Material handling in natural resource value chains play an important role within and beyond the Interreg Aurora area. However, there are lot of challenges to facilitate the transition to climate-neutral and circular economy where new more sustainable system concepts are needed.

New technology for fossil free drivetrains and autonomy gives a huge potential to disruptively improve the sustainability in material handling. However, such solutions require not only new autonomous vehicles but also a well-functioning surrounding infrastructure.

Hence, the objective of this project is to show how such a sustainable material handling system based on fossil free autonomous vehicles shall be configured. To proof the concept, demonstration of selected autonomous material handling activities will be demonstrated.

Funding: funded by Interreg Aurora

SAMHand project description on Interreg Aurora's web-site

LEVITOI project delivers leading agri-logistics and machine solutions for changing soil conditions

The LEVITOI consortium develops new machine and equipment solutions to overcome logistical and operational challenges of primary production.

Climate change is challenging operating conditions outside the main road network worldwide. In some regions rising temperatures and increasing rainfall are weakening the bearing capacity of the soil. In others, droughts compact and harden the soil. New technological solutions are necessary as the demand for agri- and forest products and crops grow globally, and efficient, nature-preserving operations become critical.

The LEVITOI project strengthens the know-how in agricultural and utility vehicle technology, especially the ability to bring new and tested products quickly to market.

eMobiili project – Improving Knowledge of Experts

NUVE-LAB is linked to a partner project which is targeted at people in Northern Ostrobothnia who work in the automotive and utility vehicle sector. This project is called eMobiili and its goal is to expand the knowledge of experts to work with new kinds of vehicle technologies (f.ex. hybrid, electric, gas motors).

Link in Finnish: eMobiili

NUVE – Nordic Platform for Development of Autonomous Utility Vehicles

The changing climate and tightened environmental legislation are guiding the vehicle manufacturers to develop ecological and low-emission transportations and utility vehicles. Switching from the combustion engines to hybrid and electric vehicles decreases the emissions of a utility vehicle. The NUVE project will build a controlled environment for researching, developing and testing for semi-autonomous and fully autonomous utility vehicles.

Mobilab – the Kickstart for the Expertise of Automotive and Vehicle Technology

The Mobilab project, the trigger for the NUVE-LAB project, which starts by building the actual laboratory and research and development environment on the Linnanmaa campus in Oulu.