Tag / transportation

by Robb Bush

A Modular, Autonomous Transport and Logistics System for Cross-Modal Optimization (NUMUV)

By 2050, global transportation demand is expected to increase two- to three-fold. This includes the movement of both people and freight, driven by population growth, urbanization, e-commerce, and rising standards of living. Current systems – road, rail, sea, air – are siloed, inefficient, and fragile. They cannot absorb this surge without creating more congestion, higher costs, and greater emissions. A breakthrough is required.

NUMUV (pronounced “new-move”) is a bold reimagining of transportation. Rather than focusing on “smarter cars” or incremental improvements to existing vehicles, NUMUV introduces a modular, system-level design that treats mobility more like the internet: packets of information can move seamlessly across different networks; NUMUV envisions pods of people and cargo moving seamlessly across different transport modes.

At the heart of the NUMUV concept are:

  • Pods: standardized, universally dockable units for people and goods, customizable for specific use cases.
  • Transporters: autonomous platforms operating across land, water, air, underground, or even orbital environments.
  • Transfers: robotic, automated handoffs between modes, eliminating delays and costs at transfer points.
  • Orchestration: an intelligent coordination system that matches demand (people, products, services needing to move) with supply (available pods and transporters) in real time, while continuously measuring performance. (see industry-5.net)

Together, these elements form a physical-internet of mobility: modular, interoperable, resilient, and highly efficient.

The Impact. NUMUV has the potential to:

  • Triple throughput capacity without tripling vehicles or infrastructure.
  • Reduce transfer times and costs by 30–50%.
  • Improve vehicle and container utilization by 20–40%, cutting empty moves.
  • Provide resilience in disconnected or disrupted environments (e.g., disasters, rural areas, conflict zones).
  • Extend beyond Earth to support orbital, lunar, or Mars logistics.
  • Enable safer, more predictable, and more transparent mobility for people and goods.

Why Now?
The last great transport breakthrough was the shipping container in the 1960s, which revolutionized global trade. Today, we face similar conditions: exponential demand growth, disruptive technologies (AI, robotics, additive manufacturing), and urgent policy imperatives for resilience and decarbonization. NUMUV is the next moment – creating an open standard that invites and accelerates innovation while solving systemic inefficiencies.

Execution Path.
NUMUV will progress in stages:

  1. Simulation & Standards (Years 1–2): Digital twin modeling and open connector standards.
  2. Prototypes & Pilots (Years 2–3): Modular pods and robotic transfer hubs in controlled corridors.
  3. Multi-Modal Pilots (Years 3–5): Demonstrations across road, rail, marine, and air.
  4. Scale & Expansion (Years 5–7): National adoption and off-Earth extensions.

NUMUV represents a transformational shift: a modular transport system orchestrated by new-intelligence, designed to meet the demands of 2050 while improving efficiency, sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness.

  1. Bush, Robb (2025). Modular Transport and Logistics System Using Interoperable Pods, Universal Docking Interfaces, Agent-Based Orchestration, and Adaptive Transfer Infrastructure. U.S. Provisional Patent Application #63/816,350.
  2. Bush, Robb (2025). Systems and Methods for Agent-Based Orchestration (i5). INDUSTRY 5, Inc. Provisional Patent Application #63/812,498.
  3. OECD/ITF (2023). Transport Outlook 2023. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development / International Transport Forum.
  4. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2023). Freight Analysis Framework (FAF5).
  5. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2019). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision.
  6. Airports Council International (2024). World Airport Traffic Forecasts 2024–2053.
  7. Federal Highway Administration (2022). Traffic Congestion and Reliability Trends and Statistics. U.S. DOT.
  8. International Energy Agency (2023). World Energy Outlook 2023 – Transport Sector Analysis.
  9. Bush, Robb (2024). NUMUV: Modular Transport and Logistics System – Concept & Design Hypothesis. Design-Science LLC.
  10. Bush, Robb (2020). NŪMŪV Project Launch. Design-Science LLC, Dec 29, 2020.
    Marks the early articulation of NUMUV as an experimental multi-modal mobility and logistics system in December 2020.
  11. Bush, Robb (2023). NUMUV: What Is It and Who Cares? Design-Science LLC, Mar 20, 2023.
    Explores the societal, economic, and innovation impacts of NUMUV.
  12. Bush, Robb (2024). NUMUV Project Summary. Design-Science LLC, Aug 8, 2024.
    Provides the formal Design Hypothesis: “By 2050, how can the world move 3× more people and cargo…?”
  13. Bush, Robb (2004). Review: Going Conference 2004. Sep 15, 2004.
    Early reflections on mobility paradigms; seeds of NUMUV’s system-level design approach.
  14. Sturges, Dan (2023). Near to Far: Designing Equitable and Sustainable Transportation for Communities. Amazon Publishing.
    Transportation visionary and NUMUV inspiration; co-creator of neighborhood EVs (NEV/GEM Car), contributor to Ford Th!nk and Wired magazine’s coverage of mobility futures.
  15. Lutz, Bob (2017). Kiss the Good Times Goodbye. Automotive News, Nov. 6, 2017.
    Editorial by a veteran auto executive arguing for the rise of standardized autonomous travel modules and the obsolescence of human driving
by Robb Bush

NŪMŪV Project Summary

say 'New-Move'!

NŪMŪV is a design-experiment exploring the truly autonomous movement of people AND cargo.

  • The PURPOSE of NUMUV is a comprehensive, anticipatory ‘re-imagining’ of cross-modal transport that could help challenge current assumptions, and prove-out qualitatively and quantitatively what an ideal future could be.
  • The INTENT of NUMUV is a system that could radically improve how the world moves.

the NUMUV Objective or ‘Job to be Done1see Job to be Done theory‘

By the year 2050, HOW can the world move 3x the volume of people and cargo, and do so…

  • transparently?
  • efficiently?
  • comfortably?
  • predictably?
  • safely?

NUMUV Design Hypothesis:

  1. An Autonomous robotic vehicle / transport system is fundamentally different than a ‘Driverless Car’
    • Just like a modern car is fundamentally different than a ‘horseless carriage’
  2. Decoupling the ‘cabin’ from the ‘conveyance’ enables a completely new system.
    • The cabin for people does not need to be the same as the conveyance platform / chassis
    • It can be much lighter and stronger, and most importantly – infinitely customizable.
  3. Make Transfers ‘Transparent’
    • Transfers between modes are the main ‘value leak’ – waste in time & cost
  4. Orient on the discrete Person / Product being moved
    • to inform the system, not multiple intermediaries
  5. Remove all complication unrelated to core function
    • It’s very easy to add-complexity
  6. Should be an ‘open’ design – to enable clear-focused innovation opportunities for existing Companies and Infrastructure (faster, at less cost)
    • Transport designers can focus on unique new form-factors within the system (removes ‘congestion’), vs unique standalone vehicles (adds ‘congestion’)

Running a NUMUV Simulation to determine VALUE (Cost:Benefit)

To make NUMUV come alive, so we can understand the differences in volume, time, and cost – versus today, our lNDUSTRY 5.0 supply-chain & logistics solution leverages the NUMUV concept in a realistic way, modeling the movement of people & cargo within real-world physical-economic constraints of Cost, Capacity and Time – and of course, the laws of Physics.

by Robb Bush

NŪMŪV

NŪMŪV (i.e. ‘new move’) is an experimental multi-modal transport system-simulator – one that moves both people and cargo ‘autonomously’ – orchestrated by supply & demand, in time & space via the INDUSTRY 5.0 game.

Primary Role: Founder
Secondary Role(s): Product Designer

Business Driver(s): Define Market , Capture Market Opportunity
Results & Benefits: Open-Source Project

Time Range: 2021-2025

Class: Initiative

NUMUV Transfer Animation by Design-Science.co
by Robb Bush

NŪMŪV: What is it, and who cares?

The primary design-hypothesis of the NUMUV concept:

De-coupling the cabin from the conveyance enables a whole new mobility system – both physically, and digitally.

Depending on the point of view and area of expertise, various people will see different aspects of the NUMUV system that are interrelated:

A Transportation Designer may see:

  • a modularized vehicle system with a wide variety of interoperable ‘transporters’ and ‘cabins’
  • leverage existing infrastructure and transport modes in a new way

A Logistics Professional may see:

  • ‘Containerization’ which has proven to “make the word smaller, and the economy bigger”

A Supply-Chain Professional may see:

  • A digital-thread system that “follows the Person / Product” and not the purchase or delivery order

A Software Engineer may see:

  • Internet of Things and Autonomous Robotics

A Hardware Engineer may see:

  • Robotics and Microcontrollers

An Industrial Automation Engineer may see:

  • Meh
by Robb Bush

what is this?

GPT 4o does not really know, but does provide a useful ‘description’ / translation!

A historical illustration showing a mechanism for transferring a stagecoach or similar vehicle onto a railway wagon. The text at the bottom is German and reads “Maschine zum Uebersetzen der Diligencen auf Eisenbahnwaggons,” which translates to “Machine for transferring the coaches onto railway wagons.”

Based on the style and subject matter, it likely dates back to the 19th century, during the early days of rail transportation when such mechanisms were developed to facilitate the movement of passengers and cargo between different modes of transport.