Citation: Frizziero, L.; Donnici, G.; Galiè, G.; Pala, G.; Pilla, M.; Zamagna, E. QFD and SDE Methods Applied to Autonomous Minibus Redesign and an Innovative Mobile Charging System (MBS). Inventions 2023, 8, 1. https:// doi.org/10.3390/inventions8010001 Academic Editor: Om P. Malik Received: 15 November 2022 Revised: 11 December 2022 Accepted: 15 December 2022 Published: 21 December 2022 Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). inventions Article QFD and SDE Methods Applied to Autonomous Minibus Redesign and an Innovative Mobile Charging System (MBS) Leonardo Frizziero , Giampiero Donnici , Giulio Galiè * , Giacomo Pala, Martina Pilla and Elia Zamagna Alma Mater Studiorum–Università di Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy * Correspondence: giulio.galie2@unibo.it Abstract: Urban mobility scenarios are constantly evolving, and today’s solutions may not be adequate in the future. Through innovative analysis and design methods encapsulated by the IDeS methodology, it is possible to plausibly hypothesize a number of key scenarios to be analyzed, for which vehicles can be designed in order to solve the main problems. Scenarios such as the steady growth in public mobility, based on the sharing of electric mini-buses at the expense of the privatization of the means of transport, lead to the gradual rethinking of citizens’ needs and the supporting infrastructure. Problems such as the lack of privacy of public vehicles, the efficiency of the infrastructure and recharging modes of e-buses, and autonomous driving are addressed here through methods such as QFD (quality function deployment) and SDE (stylistic design engineering), with the aim of outlining a proposal that, to date, is futuristic but is designed to be concrete and feasible within the next decade. These methodologies were applied to the design of a sustainable urban transport system consisting of an electric mini-bus, effected by rethinking the layout of the interior spaces in favor of areas enabling greater privacy and a mobile recharging system (MBS) capable of offering a new management strategy for the non-stop recharging phase. Through the use of an MBS, which functions as a mobile ‘energy bank’ module that is capable of autonomously reaching a mini-bus in need of recharging and extending its autonomy by connecting and recharging it, the proposed system can potentially be enabled to perform its required service during the day without any need to spend time making intermediate stops for the purpose of recharging. Keywords: minibus; privacy; recharging systems; range; autonomous driving; human centered design 1. Introduction This project originates from considerations related to research concerning the current and future changes that the urban transport sector is and will be facing in the coming decades. New technologies and new solutions are, in fact, continuously developing in an attempt to address the problems caused by the environmental impact of vehicles, as well as the inefficiencies demonstrated by a system which, today, presents the coexistence of contrasting strategies and technologies in this era of transition. Nowadays, urban mobility is characterized by traffic congestion, pollution, non-optimized timings, low average speeds due to the density of the vehicles, noise, and general inefficiency in terms of capacity and space consumption on the scale required to enable a modern urban economy to function productively. According to the EEA 2013 report [1], urban transport is estimated to account for approximately 25% of the CO 2 transport emissions responsible for climate change. Research [2] shows that the viable solutions that can enable future urban mobility are shared and electric vehicles. In fact, the adoption of electric buses in the urban public transport fleet is steadily growing all over the world. The transition began in China, and Europe is now booming; the year 2019 saw the number of registrations of electric buses in western Europe triple. In 2020, the year of COVID-19, the number of battery electric buses in the same area of the world grew by 22%. Marcus Enoch’s research for New Zealand’s Ministry of Transport explores four visions for the future of public transport [3], showing how people Inventions 2023, 8, 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions8010001 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/inventions