Future “greener” urban transport: accessible, mobile and resilient cities?

Geographers, amongst others, have been considering urban futures for some time now. They all try to conceptually understand what a “sustainable city” in Europe / the UK / globally might look like. oncepts such as liveable, “green”, sustainable and resilient are being discussed, with carbon emissions and transitions, including from transport. Mobility (or what some authors call motility) is one strand, with lifecycle assessment of vehicles and fuels being applied . This article reviews visions and policies for more resilient urban transport

Location-based technologies for learning

Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring location based technologies and their potential for educatio

Populating 3D Cities: a True Challenge

In this paper, we describe how we can model crowds in real-time using dynamic meshes, static meshes andimpostors. Techniques to introduce variety in crowds including colors, shapes, textures, individualanimation, individualized path-planning, simple and complex accessories are explained. We also present ahybrid architecture to handle the path planning of thousands of pedestrians in real time, while ensuringdynamic collision avoidance. Several behavioral aspects are presented as gaze control, group behaviour, aswell as the specific technique of crowd patches

Populating 3D Cities: A True Challenge

In this paper, we describe how we can model crowds in real-time using dynamic meshes, static meshes andimpostors. Techniques to introduce variety in crowds including colors, shapes, textures, individualanimation, individualized path-planning, simple and complex accessories are explained. We also present ahybrid architecture to handle the path planning of thousands of pedestrians in real time, while ensuringdynamic collision avoidance. Several behavioral aspects are presented as gaze control, group behaviour, aswell as the specific technique of crowd patches

Coordination-free Multi-robot Path Planning for Congestion Reduction Using Topological Reasoning

We consider the problem of multi-robot path planning in a complex, cluttered environment with the aim of reducing overall congestion in the environment, while avoiding any inter-robot communication or coordination. Such limitations may exist due to lack of communication or due to privacy restrictions (for example, autonomous vehicles may not want to share their locations or intents with other vehicles or even to a central server). The key insight that allows us to solve this problem is to stochastically distribute the robots across different routes in the environment by assigning them paths in different topologically distinct classes, so as to lower congestion and the overall travel time for all robots in the environment. We outline the computation of topologically distinct paths in a spatio-temporal configuration space and propose methods for the stochastic assignment of paths to the robots. A fast replanning algorithm and a potential field based controller allow robots to avoid collision with nearby agents while following the assigned path. Our simulation and experiment results show a significant advantage over shortest path following under such a coordination-free setup.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figure

A review of traffic simulation software

Computer simulation of tra c is a widely used method in research of tra c modelling, planning and development of tra c networks and systems. Vehicular tra c systems are of growing concern and interest globally and modelling arbitrarily complex tra c systems is a hard problem. In this article we review some of the tra c simulation software applications, their features and characteristics as well as the issues these applications face. Additionally, we introduce some algorithmic ideas, underpinning data structural approaches and quanti able metrics that can be applied to simulated model systems

Robottiautojen tutkimukseen tarkoitetun virtuaalisen koneoppimisympäristön suorituskyvyn evaluointi

While automotive manufacturers are already implementing Autonomous Driving (AD) features in their latest commercial vehicles, fully automated vehicles are still not a reality. In addition to AD, recent developments in mobile networks enables the possibility of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication. Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication, or vehicular Internet of Things (IoT), can provide solutions that improve the safety and efficiency of traffic. Both AD and vehicular IoT need improvements to the surrounding infrastructure and vehicular hardware and software. The upcoming 5G network not only reduces latency, but improves availability and massively increases the amount of supported simultaneous connections, making vehicular IoT a possibility. Developing software for AD and vehicular IoT is difficult, especially because testing the software with real vehicles can be hazardous and expensive. The use of virtual environments makes it possible to safely test the behavior of autonomous vehicles. These virtual 3D environments include physics simulation and photorealistic graphics. Real vehicular hardware can be combined with these simulators. The vehicle driving software can control the virtual vehicle and observe the environment through virtual sensors, such as cameras and radars. In this thesis we investigate the performance of such simulators. The issue with existing open-source simulators is their insufficient performance for real-time simulation of multiple vehicles. When the simulation is combined with real vehicular hardware and edge computing services, it is important that the simulated environment resembles reality as closely as possible. As driving in traffic is very latency sensitive, the simulator should always be running in real-time. We select the most suitable traffic simulator for testing these multi-vehicle driving scenarios. We plan and implement a system for distributing the computational load over multiple computers, in order to improve the performance and scalability. Our results show that our implementation allows scaling the simulation by increasing the amount of computing nodes, and therefore increasing the number of simultaneously simulated autonomous vehicles. For future work, we suggest researching how the distributed computing solution affects latency in comparison to a real-world testing environment. We also suggest the implementation of an automated load-balancing system for automatically scaling the simulation to multiple computation nodes based on demand.Vaikka uusimmista automalleista löytyy jo itsestään ajavien autojen ominaisuuksia, robottiautot vaativat vielä runsaasti kehitystä ennen kuin ne kykenevät ajamaan liikenteessä täysin itsenäisesti. Robottiautojen ohella ajoneuvojen ja infrastruktuurin välinen (V2X) kommunikaatio ja tuleva 5G mobiiliverkkoteknologia sekä mobiiliverkkojen tukiasemien yhteyteen sijoitettavat laskentapilvet mahdollistavat liikenteen turvallisuuden ja sujuvuuden parantamisen. Tätä V2X kommunikaatiota voidaan esimerkiksi hyödyntää varoittamalla ajoneuvoja nurkan takaa tulevista pyöräilijöistä, jalankulkijoista ja huonoista tieolosuhteista. Robottiautojen ja V2X kommunikaation hyödyntämistä on hankala tutkia oikeassa liikenteessä. Fyysisten autojen ja tieverkostoa ympäröivän infrastruktuurin rakentaminen on kallista, lisäksi virhetilanteista johtuvat onnettomuudet voivat aiheuttaa henkilö- ja tavaravahinkoja. Yksi ratkaisu on virtuaalisten testausympäristöjen käyttö. Tällaiset simulaattorit kykenevät mallintamaan ajoneuvojen käyttäytymistä reaaliaikaisen fysiikkamoottorin avulla ja tuottamaan valokuvamaista grafiikkaa simulaatioympäristöstä. Robottiauton ohjelmisto voi hallita simuloidun auton käyttäytymistä ja havainnoida simuloitua ympäristöä virtuaalisten kameroiden ja tutkien avulla. Tässä diplomityössä tutkitaan liikennesimulaattorien suorituskykyä. Avoimen lähdekoodin simulaattorien ongelmana on niiden huono skaalautuvuus, eikä niiden suorituskyky riitä simuloimaan useita autoja reaaliajassa. Tässä diplomityössä tehdään lyhyt katsaus olemassa oleviin simulaattoreihin, joiden joukosta valitaan parhaiten yllämainittujen ongelmien tutkimiseen soveltuva simulaattori. Simulaattorin suorituskyvyn ja skaalautuvuuden parantamiseksi suunnitellaan järjestelmä, joka hajauttaa simulaattorin työkuorman useammalle laskentapisteelle. Kyseinen järjestelmä toteutetaan ja sen toimivuutta testataan mittaamalla. Mittaustulokset osoittavat, että hajautettu laskenta parantaa simulaattorin suorituskykyä ja että reaaliaikaisesti simuloitujen autojen lukumäärää voidaan kasvattaa lisäämällä laskentapisteiden lukumäärää. Jatkotutkimukseksi ehdotetaan tutkimaan simulaation hajauttamisen vaikutusta viiveisiin, ja kuinka simulaattorin aiheuttamat ylimääräiset viiveet suhtautuvat tosielämän viiveisiin. Lisäksi suositellaan automaattisen kuormituksentasaajan toteuttamista, jonka avulla simulaatiota voidaan automaattisesti hajauttaa useille laskentapisteille tarvittavan laskentakapasiteetin mukaisesti

VRtualize in Simulation and Training

Road safety education is considered one of the most important basic skills that need to be taught on children with the correct best practical way since they are small. However, many programs, do not consider the practical skills of the road-crossing task, the functional and behavioral factors that may put some children at increased risk, and the most beneficial methods to transfer knowledge to improved behavior in modern, real-world environments. Therefore, to address this issue, VRtualize, a Virtual Reality in Simulation and Training will be programmed. VRtualize will train children on how to cross the road using the correct method and will create awareness on the importance of road safety. This program is giving the real experience to cross the road while the children do not expose to the road danger. It will use the Unity as the platform to create the program using C# language. The program will be using 3D effect using the Google Oculus to give the real experience being on real road. Children need to undergo three levels which are first the road with car passing, second road, practice to cross using zebra cross and last cross practice is using pedestrian bridge. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology is used for this project. Surveys and interviews are the sources to collect data about this project

Augmented reality meeting table: a novel multi-user interface for architectural design

Immersive virtual environments have received widespread attention as providing possible replacements for the media and systems that designers traditionally use, as well as, more generally, in providing support for collaborative work. Relatively little attention has been given to date however to the problem of how to merge immersive virtual environments into real world work settings, and so to add to the media at the disposal of the designer and the design team, rather than to replace it. In this paper we report on a research project in which optical see-through augmented reality displays have been developed together with prototype decision support software for architectural and urban design. We suggest that a critical characteristic of multi user augmented reality is its ability to generate visualisations from a first person perspective in which the scale of rendition of the design model follows many of the conventions that designers are used to. Different scales of model appear to allow designers to focus on different aspects of the design under consideration. Augmenting the scene with simulations of pedestrian movement appears to assist both in scale recognition, and in moving from a first person to a third person understanding of the design. This research project is funded by the European Commission IST program (IST-2000-28559)