Overview
TRAMAN21 explores the impact of emerging vehicle automation and communication systems (VACS) for traffic flow behavior and new modeling approaches. Tasks are: traffic flow modeling in the presence of VACS, motorway traffic control, and a local field test.
The main objective of TRAMAN21 is to develop the foundations and first steps that will pave the way towards a new era of motorway traffic management research and practice, which is indispensable for exploiting the evolving VACS deployment. TRAMAN21 assesses the relevance of VACS for improved traffic flow and develops specific options for a sensible upgrade of the traffic conditions, particularly at the network’s weak points, i.e. at bottlenecks and incident locations. The proposed work comprises the development of new traffic flow modelling and control approaches on the basis of appropriate methods from many-particle Physics, Automatic Control and Optimisation. A field trial is included, aiming at a preliminary testing and demonstration of the developed concepts and exploring the implications of emerging vehicle automation and communication systems (VACS) for traffic flow behavior and new traffic flow modeling approaches.
TRAMAN21 comprises five interconnected Work Packages (WP):
- Overview, Analysis and Exploitation of VACS addresses all existing or envisaged VACS options, assesses their relevance for traffic management, and develops, for a most relevant subset of VACS, appropriate exploitation possibilities towards a more efficient motorway traffic flow;
- Traffic Flow Modelling in Presence of VACS develops appropriate models and modelling approaches, at the microscopic and macroscopic levels, that allow for a proper reflection of the evolving vehicle features and capabilities;
- Motorway Traffic Control develops a generic hierarchical control structure applicable under all different VACS scenarios, as well as detailed control strategies, to be tested in simulation, for selected VACS scenarios;
- Local Field Test designs and implements a field demonstration of a local control system, using conventional means (VSL signs) that mimic individual speed commands under VACS;
- Dissemination will undertake a multitude of actions aiming at promoting the groundbreaking character of TRAMAN21 research.
Funding
Results
TRAMAN21 risk stems from the uncertainty in the VACS evolution, which is a challenge for the required modelling and control developments. But, if successful, TRAMAN21 will contribute to a substantial reduction of the estimated annual European traffic congestion cost of 120 billion € and related environmental pollution and will trigger further innovative developments and a new era of traffic flow modelling and control research.