Pirelli to develop tires for remote-controlled rescue vehicles

Milan, Italy – Pirelli and Italy's Abet Group have signed an agreement to jointly develop technologies for remote-controlled electric unmanned ground vehicles  (e-UGVs) designed for rescue operations in rugged and extreme environments.

As part of the partnership, Pirelli will contribute its ‘Cyber Tyre’ technology and optical sensors to the project, said the Italian tire maker 5 Aug.

The technology, it said, will allow “the transmission of information to the vehicle in real time enabling maximum grip in different environmental conditions and optimising the remote control of the vehicle.”

The partnership also includes development of “a dedicated tire” based on Pirelli’s ‘Run Forward’ technology, which Pirelli said is designed to “enable the vehicle to confront and adapt to the most extreme surfaces.”

Pirelli and Abet High Tech Solutions (Abet HTS) will also jointly develop artificial intelligence and machine-learning models to process data from the vehicle and cyber tire systems, including sensors and cameras.

The companies aim to use the data to develop predictive models and new on-board functions.

The new partnership follows Pirelli’s cyber tire agreements with Bosch, Movyon, Regione Puglia, Univrses and Ridesense, according to CEO Andrea Casaluci.

The technology “would be ideal for the driving optimisation of rescue vehicles working in extreme conditions and this led us to the Abet Group as the ideal partner in this phase,” Casaluci said.

According to Abet HTS CEO Fulvio Serra, the UGVs could be used in military logistics and rescue operations, including following natural disasters and in fires or highly polluted or potentially radioactive environments.

“The reliability of the tire and the collection of data and information greatly increase performance capacity and usage safety, making the Cyber Tyre technology indispensable,” Serra said.