A revolutionary new way of clean and safe transport: a floating module that’s propelled by magnets in the road. Could this be a realistic scenario in the near future? Physicist Nigel Hussey is looking into this question for the next year, together with, among others, environmental researchers, mobility researchers, linguists and neuroscientists.“Imagine, if you will, this scenario. An individual or family are in possession of a module, ultimately designed to their own specifications. (…) There is no engine, no wheels, no brakes, no suspension, not even a battery (…). The module is propelled by a series of tilted electromagnets located just below the surface of the road that are pulsed at the precise moment the module passes over them; levitation and propulsion provided by a single source. Armed with the very latest location detection hardware, and in constant communication with a central computer mainframe, it allows the passengers to select their destination, choose a desirable route, then escort them smoothly, swiftly, and without interference, through the road network to their final port-of-call. (…).”That is the scenario that Nigel Hussey, professor in correlated electron systems in high magnetic fields, describes in his funding proposal for a project entitled NIFTI, short for National Individual Floating Transport Infrastructure. The idea of a levitated module propelled by electromagnetic pulses in the road could come straight out of a science fiction film, yet around 15 years ago, Hussey asked himself the following question: could we actually make this happen with the technology that’s available today? Now, he has started to seriously look into this together with Radboud researchers from a wide swath of disciplines.Magneto-transport: levitating passengersNigel Hussey works at the High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML) at Radboud University. He is an expert in so-called ‘magneto-transport’, investigating the physical mechanisms by which electrons travel through exotic metals or superconductors. ‘When I moved from the UK to The Netherlands six years ago to start working at HFML, I thought: maybe this is the right time and place to rekindle my idea. The HFML is, after all, the home of the levitating frog, so why couldn’t it also be the home of the levitating passenger? And it’s kind of funny how my expertise in magneto-transport has taken on a whole new perspective: transporting people with magnets.’With this new alternative mode of transportation, many societal issues could potentially be solved, according to Hussey. ‘Road safety was one of the first things I thought about. Energy efficiency came later. You could reduce road accidents significantly if you had a centralized system that controlled the movement and location of all the modules. Also, if you take away all the weight of the car and design a module such that any collision is a deflection, rather than a full impact, any potential accident should be less fatal than being hit by a heavy car of 1.3 tons.’Together with researchers from the HAN University of Applied Sciences, Hussey decided to calculate the estimated energy costs of such a system. ‘We estimated that this system could be at least twice as energy efficient as a current production electric car. I felt that when you put all these potential benefits together, it’s definitely worth looking further into.’Could we do better?‘But before introducing such a radically new and disruptive technology to the world, you need a lot of expertise in other areas to determine all the issues that have to be considered’, Hussey continues. With the award of an Interfaculty grant from Radboud University, he has been able to mobilize several Radboud and HAN researchers from different disciplines, including environmental researchers, urban planning experts and linguists, to help him address the necessary questions. ‘To go around the management and linguistics departments to talk about the impact of disruptive technologies or how machines could interact with each other with meaning, or to talk with other experts about decision making and ethics… it has all been a real eye opener to me. I’m really enjoying the experience.’Over the coming year, Hussey and his team will be working out the feasibility of NIFTI as an alternative transport system in society. The technology is already working on a miniature scale, but they plan to develop a larger full working prototype as well that demonstrates the essential functions of the infrastructure. But besides further developing the technology, the researchers will also work on addressing the many political, economic, societal and environmental issues that might arise. Hussey: ‘Even if NIFTI doesn’t end up seeing the light of day, we would still have been successful. Today’s transport systems are based on centuries-old technologies, crippled by congestion, inefficiency, pollution, mortality and social exclusion. We are simply asking the question: could we do any better?’Researchers from the following disciplines collaborate in the NIFTI project: Magnetic simulations (Nigel Hussey), Social acceptance & implementation of new technologies (Lotte Krabbenborg), Artificial intelligence & automation (Tom Heskes), Environmental analysis (Rosalie van Zelm), Business cases (Nanne Migchels), Mobility ecosystems (Arnoud Lagendijk), Transport & urban planning (Erwin van der Krabben), Decision making (Alan Sanfey), Language & speech technology (Henk van den Heuvel), Automotive technologies (Toin Peters, HAN), Power Electronics (Stefan van Sterkenburg, HAN), Marketing & communication (Mario de Vries, HAN).Image: Mel Visscher