Financial Data

http://www.smartnets_napier.ac.uk

Key Words
urban traffic control, optimal control, linear-quadratic regulators, TUC

Summary
The aim of the SMART NETS project is to improve the international state-of-the-art in real-time network-wide urban traffic control via the application, demonstration, and evaluation of the new-generation control strategy TUC (Traffic-responsive Urban Control). TUC is developed by the Dynamic Systems and Simulation Laboratory of the Technical University of Crete. It employs advanced automatic control methodologies which may lead to improvements in the order of 40% of journey times as compared to fixed-time settings under saturated traffic conditions, thereby reducing congestion and contributing to the quality of life in European cities. SMART NETS commenced in June 2001, and will last for 30 months. Following the development of TUC that has been achieved in earlier research, the first stage in SMART NETS is further design and testing and the inclusion of public transport priority in the TUC strategy. This stage will be followed by the field implementation and verification of the strategy in the project's three test sites in Chania, Southampton and Munich. The outcome of this stage will be the TUC implementation in three sites and a demonstration of its transferability and easy applicability. This will be followed by field demonstrations, allowing assessment of the TUC strategy through field-comparison with the existing control methods in each site, as well as a comparative evaluation of the operation of TUC across all sites. SMART NETS Project partners are: Technical University of Crete, Municipality of Chania and Siemens AE from Greece; Napier University (Transport Research Institute), Southampton City Council, Siemens Traffic Controls Ltd and University of Southampton from the UK, and; Kreisverwaltungsreferat Munich, Gevas Software and TransVer from Germany. The work to be carried out and the results achieved in the SMART NETS project will be closely observed by the traffic control authorities in ten follower cities - Athens, Belfast, Bialystok, Copenhagen, Cork, Glasgow, Graz, London, Paris and Prague - who all expressed their interest in the intended investigations and developments and have formed the SMART NETS User Group.