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

  • EU aims to turn ITS theory into practice
    May 18, 2016
    Gareth Horton explains how the European Commission’s Transport Research and Innovation Portal can help expedite research and turn theory into practice. Over the next few years Europe’s transport systems face a number of challenges, such as improving urban mobility while at the same time protecting population health and accommodating the accessibility needs of an ageing but active population.
  • Suppliers reshape to provide tolling and traffic management expertise
    August 2, 2013
    Jason Barnes examines the trend towards single source supply of complete tolling and traffic management solutions with some senior tolling industry figures. Only a few years back, the major tolling system suppliers were aggressively positioning themselves as one-stop shops for tolling solutions and operations. No sooner has that little flurry of innovation settled than another trend has emerged – tolling companies wanting to become major ITS suppliers as well. Various tolling company seniors have in recent
  • Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    October 29, 2015
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.
  • In-vehicle vision-based systems and autonomous vehicles
    January 11, 2013
    The Artificial Vision and Intelligent Systems Laboratory (VisLab) of Italy’s Parma University has built itself a fine pedigree in basic and applied research which has developed machine vision algorithms and intelligent systems for the automotive field. In 1998, a VisLab-equipped Lancia Thema named ‘Argo’ travelled along the famous Mille Miglia race route and completed 98 per cent of it autonomously using then-current technology. In 2005, VisLab provided the vision element of the Terramax, a collaborative un