Urban traffic flow prediction, a spatial-temporal approach

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesCurrent advances in computational technologies such as machine learning combined with traffic data availability are inspiring the development and growth of intelligent transport Systems (ITS). As urban authorities strive for efficient traffic systems, traffic forecasting is a vital element for effective control and management of traffic networks. Traffic forecasting methods have progressed from traditional statistical techniques to optimized data driven methods eulogised with artificial intelligence. Today, most techniques in traffic forecasting are mainly timeseries methods that ignore the spatial impact of traffic networks in traffic flow modelling. The consideration of both spatial and temporal dimensions in traffic forecasting efforts is key to achieving inclusive traffic forecasts. This research paper presents approaches to analyse spatial temporal patterns existing in networks and goes on to use a machine learning model that integrates both spatial and temporal dependency in traffic flow prediction. The application of the model to a traffic dataset for the city of Singapore shows that we can accurately predict traffic flow up to 15 minutes in advance and also accuracy results obtained outperform other classical traffic prediction methods

On the impact of spatio-temporal granularity of traffic conditions on the quality of pickup and delivery optimal tours

International audienceOptimizing the duration of delivery tours is a crucial issue in urban logistics. In most cases, travel times between locations are considered as constant for the whole optimization horizon. Making these travel times time-dependent is particularly relevant in real urban traffic environments as traffic conditions and thus travel speeds vary according to the time of the day.In this paper, we review the literature on time-dependent routing problems, with a specific focus on benchmarks and performance criteria used to experimentally evaluate the interest of exploiting time-dependent data, showing the lack of studies on the impact of spatio-temporal features of the benchmark on solutions. Hence, we introduce a new benchmark produced from a realistic traffic flow micro-simulation of Lyon city, allowing us to consider different levels of spatial granularity (i.e., number of sensors used to measure traffic conditions) and temporal granularity (i.e., frequency of measures). Finally, we experimentally evaluate the impact of the spatio-temporal granularity on the quality of solutions for different classical problems, including the traveling salesman problem, the pickup and delivery problem, and the dial-a-ride problem

Comparison of traffic forecasting methods in urban and suburban context

International audienceIn the context of Connected and Smart Cities, the need to predict short term traffic conditions has led to the development of a large variety of forecasting algorithms. In spite of various research efforts, there is however still no clear view of the requirements involved in network-wide traffic forecasting. In this paper, we study the ability of several state-of-the-art methods to forecast the traffic flow at each road segment. Some of the multivariate methods use the information of all sensors to predict traffic at a specific location, whereas some others rely on the selection of a suitable subset. In addition to classical methods, we also study the advantage of learning this subset by using a new variable selection algorithm based on time series graphical models and information theory. This method has already been successfully used in natural science applications with similar goals, but not in the traffic community. A contribution is to evaluate all these methods on two real-world datasets with different characteristics and to compare the forecasting ability of each method in both contexts. The first dataset describes the traffic flow in the city center of Lyon (France), which exhibits complex patterns due to the network structure and urban traffic dynamics. The second dataset describes inter-urban freeway traffic on the outskirts of the french city of Marseille. Experimental results validate the need for variable selection mechanisms and illustrate the complementarity of forecasting algorithms depending on the type of road and the forecasting horizon

JFPC 2019 - Actes des 15es Journées Francophones de Programmation par Contraintes

National audienceLes JFPC (Journées Francophones de Programmation par Contraintes) sont le principal congrès de la communauté francophone travaillant sur les problèmes de satisfaction de contraintes (CSP), le problème de la satisfiabilité d'une formule logique propositionnelle (SAT) et/ou la programmation logique avec contraintes (CLP). La communauté de programmation par contraintes entretient également des liens avec la recherche opérationnelle (RO), l'analyse par intervalles et différents domaines de l'intelligence artificielle.L'efficacité des méthodes de résolution et l'extension des modèles permettent à la programmation par contraintes de s'attaquer à des applications nombreuses et variées comme la logistique, l'ordonnancement de tâches, la conception d'emplois du temps, la conception en robotique, l'étude du génôme en bio-informatique, l'optimisation de pratiques agricoles, etc.Les JFPC se veulent un lieu convivial de rencontres, de discussions et d'échanges pour la communauté francophone, en particulier entre doctorants, chercheurs confirmés et industriels. L'importance des JFPC est reflétée par la part considérable (environ un tiers) de la communauté francophone dans la recherche mondiale dans ce domaine.Patronnées par l'AFPC (Association Française pour la Programmation par Contraintes), les JFPC 2019 ont lieu du 12 au 14 Juin 2019 à l'IMT Mines Albi et sont organisées par Xavier Lorca (président du comité scientifique) et par Élise Vareilles (présidente du comité d'organisation)