Research projects of iUTS cut across multiple areas. Current research topics/areas include:
- Urban Systems with emerging technologies, such as Mobile sensing/Big Data/CV (Monitoring, Mining, and Modeling)
- Dynamic transportation network modeling (modeling and management)
Urban Transportation Modeling with Mobile Sensing
Advances in wireless communications have prompted the rapid deployment of mobile traffic sensors (such as GPS or cellular phones) that are able to move along with the flow they are monitoring. Mobile sensors provide an alternative way to traditional fixed-location sensors (such as loop detectors) for traffic data collection, freeway or arterial traffic state estimation, control and optimization, urban mobility pattern analysis, among other important traffic/transportation applications. Sponsored by the NSF, USDOT, state and local agencies, and industry partners, we have worked on new schemes to co-design mobile data collection/modeling and privacy protection, real time arterial performance measurements, urban freight delivery performance measurement using mobile data, real-time intersection volume prediction, and techniques to fuse mobile data and fixed-location data. We are now working on using mobile sensors and other data sources, collectively called “big data”, for reliable estimation and prediction of large-scale traffic performance and mobility patterns, as well as the issues associated with such estimation/prediction.
Dynamic Transportation Network Modeling
The main purpose of dynamic transportation network modeling is to understand the behavior and interactions of major components/players in a multi-modal transportation network, develop mathematical paradigm to model such interactions and behavior, discern deep understanding of the behavior/intersections, based on which to develop novel management policies to manage the multi-modal transportation system more effectively and efficiently. Important applications include emergency evacuation planning and modeling, dynamic congestion pricing, among others. This is particularly critical now in the era of connected / automated vehicles, shared mobility, and big data in transportation. The topics we are currently investigating include the congestion effect of e-hailing and ridesourcing services, and how to model and solve the transit first-mile/last-mile problem using emerging shared mobility services.
Sponsors
