Beyond First/Last Mile Active Transportation - BikeShare@UH

Bike sharing is a new green transportation solution that has been developed and adopted at various cities around the world. In this paper, we present the process and results of the design and prototypes that a group of undergraduate students developed for a BikeShare@UH program during Summer 2017. After presenting the detailed results of four project teams focusing on customer discovery, bike share station (BSS) location identification, cloud-based mobile computing platform for user engagement and bike share program operation and management, smart lock, and alternative energy source based on PV panel. With the phase one implementation at the University planned in Spring 2018, we anticipate gathering real time data and feedback to improve the system.Cockrell School of Engineerin

iValet – A smart parking reservation system

In the current time with the continuously increasing population in the world generally and in big cities like Dubai particularly, many problems arise related to traffic and transportation. Due to covid-19 virus spread pandemic, WHO is submitting different regulations and recommendation for the need of social distancing along with avoiding any activities that might increase the possibility of the virus spread and minimize the number of infected people to save more lives. The need for decreasing the usage of the public transportation in Dubai have created parking issues in the city, streets, and buildings. One of the preferred solutions by people to overcome the long searching time for a parking lot and to reduce the fuel usage is to use the valet parking service in different city buildings, but many of them now are scared to allow strangers to use their car in the valet service. In this regard, the idea has emerged of having a smart parking reservation system that is connected with the RTA and the traffic police. The system consists of a hardware part implemented in the parking lot, and a software part where the user can search for a vacant parking spot and reserve it with in-advance payment using his/her smart phone

Supporting development and management of smart office applications: a DYAMAND case study

To realize the Internet of Things (IoT) vision, tools are needed to ease the development and deployment of practical applications. Several standard bodies, companies, and ad-hoc consortia are proposing their own solution for inter-device communication. In this context, DYnamic, Adaptive MAnagement of Networks and Devices (DYAMAND) was presented in a previous publication to solve the interoperability issues introduced by the multitude of available technologies. In this paper a DYAMAND case study is presented: in cooperation with a large company, a monitoring application was developed for flexible office spaces in order to reliably reorganize an office environment and give real-time feedback on the usage of meeting rooms. Three wireless sensor technologies were investigated to be used in the pilot. The solution was deployed in a "friendly user" setting at a research institute (iMinds) prior to deployment at the large company's premises. Based on the findings of both installations, requirements for an application platform supporting development and management of smart (office) applications were listed. DYAMAND was used as the basis of the implementation. Although the local management of networked devices as provided by DYAMAND enables easier development of intelligent applications, a number of remote services discussed in this paper are needed to enable reliable and up-to-date support (of new technologies)

Applying Integrated ITS Technologies to Carsharing System Management: A Carlink Case Study

Carsharing is the short-term use of a shared vehicle fleet by authorized members. Since 1998, U.S. carsharing services have experienced exponential growth. At present, there are 13 carsharing organizations. Over the past three years, electronic and wireless technologies have been developed that can facilitate carsharing system management in the U.S., improve customer services, and reduce program costs. This paper examines the U.S. carsharing market; the role of advanced technology in program management, including CarLink lessons learned; and technology benefits to this nascent market. Record URL

VANET Applications: Hot Use Cases

Current challenges of car manufacturers are to make roads safe, to achieve free flowing traffic with few congestions, and to reduce pollution by an effective fuel use. To reach these goals, many improvements are performed in-car, but more and more approaches rely on connected cars with communication capabilities between cars, with an infrastructure, or with IoT devices. Monitoring and coordinating vehicles allow then to compute intelligent ways of transportation. Connected cars have introduced a new way of thinking cars - not only as a mean for a driver to go from A to B, but as smart cars - a user extension like the smartphone today. In this report, we introduce concepts and specific vocabulary in order to classify current innovations or ideas on the emerging topic of smart car. We present a graphical categorization showing this evolution in function of the societal evolution. Different perspectives are adopted: a vehicle-centric view, a vehicle-network view, and a user-centric view; described by simple and complex use-cases and illustrated by a list of emerging and current projects from the academic and industrial worlds. We identified an empty space in innovation between the user and his car: paradoxically even if they are both in interaction, they are separated through different application uses. Future challenge is to interlace social concerns of the user within an intelligent and efficient driving

Mobile travel services: A three-country study into the impact of local circumstances

In this paper we explore the difference in acceptance patterns of mobile services that are related to travelling in three countries: Finland, The Netherlands and New Zealand. The objective of this paper is to understand differences in the use of Mobile Travel Services in three countries that differ with regard to national travel patterns. This paper also contributes to the discussion of the relevance of the Technology Acceptance Model for mobile applications by focusing on the importance of context characteristics, such as the degree of mobility of the user, the social situation people are in, and their need for social interaction. Based on surveys in the three countries as executed in 2009, we use structural equation modelling to find differences in patterns. The paper concludes that context factors have an impact on the relation between the core concepts as used in TAM and DOI approach, and that t here is a clear need for closer research in the moderating effect of physical (e.g. mobile and fixed context) and social context, as well as the need for social interaction. Moreover it is clear that country specific characteristics play a role in the acceptance of mobile travel services. As we pointed out in many of our research projects before the acceptance and use of mobile services requires deep understanding from individual, context and technology related characteristics and their mutual interactions

Privacy Management and Optimal Pricing in People-Centric Sensing

With the emerging sensing technologies such as mobile crowdsensing and Internet of Things (IoT), people-centric data can be efficiently collected and used for analytics and optimization purposes. This data is typically required to develop and render people-centric services. In this paper, we address the privacy implication, optimal pricing, and bundling of people-centric services. We first define the inverse correlation between the service quality and privacy level from data analytics perspectives. We then present the profit maximization models of selling standalone, complementary, and substitute services. Specifically, the closed-form solutions of the optimal privacy level and subscription fee are derived to maximize the gross profit of service providers. For interrelated people-centric services, we show that cooperation by service bundling of complementary services is profitable compared to the separate sales but detrimental for substitutes. We also show that the market value of a service bundle is correlated with the degree of contingency between the interrelated services. Finally, we incorporate the profit sharing models from game theory for dividing the bundling profit among the cooperative service providers.Comment: 16 page

Improving The Service Design Process: Process Integration, Conflict Reduction And Customer Involvement

Service design is the science of creating service experiences based on the customer’s perspective, to make it useful, enjoyable and cost-effective for the customer. Although the field of service design is relatively new, it has been rapidly expanding in research and practice. Most researchers focus on the usefulness of the service, cost efficiency, meeting customers’ needs, or service strategy. However, all service elements can benefit from improving the service design process. Current service design processes are suffering a lack of integration of activities, conflicts in decision-making processes, and exclusion of practitioners’ methods. In prior research, information models were created to integrate the service design process across the enterprise. As an extension, this dissertation introduces Petri Nets to improve the service design process. Petri Nets provide a uniform environment for modeling, analysis, and design of discrete event systems. Petri Nets are used to develop a new service design process that enhances the multidisciplinary approach and includes the practitioner methods. Additionally, this dissertation uses the Lens Model to improve the decision-making mechanism. The Lens Model is to characterize decision-making policy in service design. Research shows that there is a conflict between the designer and the manager in service design decision-making. Single Lens Model systems are designed to capture the decision policy for the service designer and the service manager. A double Lens Model system is used to compare the perspectives. Finally, this research suggests a new role for the customer in the design by applying an Asset-Based approach. Asset-based System Engineering (ABSE) is a recently introduced concept that attempts to synthesize systems around their key assets and strengths. ABSE is developed with as an innovative approach that views customers as a primary asset. Customer integration in the design process is achieved through several new service design tools

A cloud architecture to integrate a multi-agent smart parking system

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a UTFPR - Universidade Tecnológica Federal do ParanáSmart parking systems are becoming a solution to recurring issues as the number of vehicles in traffic rises in major cities, which can be related to vehicle traffic congestion, unnecessary time spent searching for parking spots, and, consequently, environmental issues. The purpose of these systems is to help drivers who are searching for available parking spaces or who want to reserve for a specified period of time, quickly and, if possible, near the desired location. In this context, there are several modules within smart parking systems that may include cyber-physical systems, multi-agent systems, dynamic pricing and artificial intelligence. This dissertation presents the development of a smart parking system architecture, using Cloud-based technology to integrate a multiagent system into a scalable, decentralized, adaptable and safe environment. The proposed architecture was tested using, as a case study, a web system developed for the management and analysis of smart parking lots, as well as an application for mobile devices, which allows users to interact with multiple functionalities available in this system. Results obtained demonstrate that the implementation of the proposed architecture offers an efficient communication between users who use parking resources and the multi-agent system responsible for the autonomy and intelligence of the parking system.Os sistemas inteligentes de estacionamento estão se tornando uma solução para problemas recorrentes à medida que aumenta o número de veículos em trânsito nas grandes cidades, os quais podem estar relacionados ao congestionamento no tráfego de veículos, tempo desnecessário gasto na busca por vagas e, consequentemente, questões ambientais. O objetivo desses sistemas é auxiliar os motoristas que buscam por vagas disponíveis ou que desejam reservar por determinado período de tempo, de forma rápida e, se possível, próximo ao local desejado. Neste contexto, existem vários módulos dentro dos sistemas inteligentes de estacionamento que podem incluir sistemas ciberfísicos, sistemas multi-agentes, precificação dinâmica e inteligência artificial. Esta dissertação apresenta o desenvolvimento de uma arquitetura para sistemas inteligentes de estacionamento, utilizando tecnologia baseada em Nuvem para integrar um sistema multi-agentes em um ambiente escalável, descentralizado, adaptável e seguro. A arquitetura proposta foi testada utilizando, como um caso de estudo, um sistema web desenvolvido para gestão e análise de estacionamentos inteligentes, bem como uma aplicação para dispositivos móveis, que permite ao usuário interagir com as múltiplas funcionalidades disponibilizadas neste sistema. Resultados obtidos demonstram que a implementação da arquitetura proposta oferece uma comunicação eficiente entre usuários que utilizam os recursos e o sistema multi-agentes responsável pela autonomia e inteligência de um sistema de estacionamento