Skip to main content

Aimsun enters partnership to develop tool for managing mixed-autonomy traffic

Aimsun has partnered with UC Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies to develop Flow, a tool for managing large-scale traffic systems where human-driven and autonomous vehicles (AVs) operate together. Flow offers a suite of pre-built traffic scenarios and is now integrated with Aimsun Next mobility modelling software. The open source architecture knits together microsimulation tools with deep reinforcement learning libraries in the cloud. Launched last September, Flow allows users to build and
January 15, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

16 Aimsun has partnered with UC Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies to develop Flow, a tool for managing large-scale traffic systems where human-driven and autonomous vehicles (AVs) operate together.

Flow offers a suite of pre-built traffic scenarios and is now integrated with Aimsun Next mobility modelling software. The open source architecture knits together microsimulation tools with deep reinforcement learning libraries in the cloud.

Launched last September, Flow allows users to build and combine modular traffic scenarios to tackle complex situations, the company says. For example, single-lane/multi-lane and merge building blocks can be used to study stop-and-go merging traffic behaviours along a highway.  

“In mixed-autonomy traffic control, evaluating machine learning methods is challenging due to the lack of standardised benchmarks,” says Alexandre Bayen, director, 8895 ITS Berkeley. “Systematic evaluation and comparison will not only further our understanding of the strengths of existing algorithms but also reveal their limitations and suggest directions for future research.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ProPart AV trial crosses the line
    March 25, 2020
    The perceived safety benefits of autonomous vehicles can only be realised with precise positioning. Ben Spencer reports from Sweden on work by a European consortium which aims to use the technology to allow a truck to carry out an automated lane change
  • Swedish AV dataset makes waves
    September 22, 2021
    Research boat provides conditions for fair comparisons between different algorithms
  • Siemens snaps up Aimsun in deal agreed at Intertraffic
    March 22, 2018
    Intertraffic was the venue for the announcement of one of the biggest deals of the year as electronics giant Siemens acquired Barcelona-based mobility modelling specialist Aimsun for an undisclosed sum. Initially spun out from a university research lab team, TSS-Transport Simulation Systems, as the company was initially known, has spent 20 years developing its microsimulator into a multi-level integrated modeling platform. Aimsun systems and algorithms use real-time traffic data to optimise traffic flows
  • Trust me, I'm a driverless car
    October 12, 2018
    Developing C/AV technology is the easy bit: now the vehicles need to gain people’s confidence. So does the public feel safe in driverless hands – and how much might they be willing to pay for the privilege? The Venturer consortium’s final user and technology test (Trial 3) explored levels of user trust in scenarios where a connected and autonomous vehicle (C/AV) is interacting with cyclists, pedestrians and other road users on a controlled road network. Trial 3 consisted of experimental runs in the