Section: Application Domains

Intelligent transportation systems

Throughout the world, roadways are notorious for their congestion, from dense urban network to large freeway systems. This situation tends to get worse over time due to the continuous increase of transportation demand whereas public investments are decreasing and space is lacking to build new infrastructures. The most obvious impact of traffic congestion for citizens is the increase of travel times and fuel consumption. Another critical effect is that infrastructures are not operated at their capacity during congestion, implying that fewer vehicles are served than the amount they were designed for. Using macroscopic fluid-like models, the NeCS team has initiated new researches to develop innovative traffic management policies able to improve the infrastructure operations. The research activity is on two main challenges: (1) modeling and forecasting, so as to provide accurate information to users, e.g., travel times; and (2) control, via ramp-metering and/or variable speed limits. The Grenoble Traffic Lab (see http://necs.inrialpes.fr/pages/grenoble-traffic-lab.php) is an experimental platform, collecting traffic infrastructure information in real time from Grenoble South Ring, together with innovative software e.g. for travel-time prediciton, and a show-case where to graphically illustrate results to the end-user. This activity is done in close collaboration with local traffic authorities (DIR-CE, CG38, La Metro), and with the start-up company Karrus (http://www.karrus-its.com/)