Aimsun Live is a traffic forecasting solution based on simulation, developed and marketed by
Aimsun.
Traffic control centers use Aimsun Live (formerly Aimsun Online) to make real-time decisions about the management of a road network. It is used to dynamically forecast future traffic conditions based on the current state of the network and to evaluate incident response or traffic management strategies.
Aimsun Live connects with the traffic control center, continuously processing live field data. By combining these live traffic data feeds and high-speed simulations with the emulation of congestion mitigation strategies, Aimsun Live can accurately forecast the future network flow patterns that will result from a particular traffic management or information provision strategy. From a single highway corridor to an entire major city, Aimsun Live can simulate vehicle movement within the road network.
Aimsun Live was launched in 2008 and is now fully deployed on Interstate 15 in San Diego, Grand Lyon in France, and other locations worldwide.
Features
Aimsun Live uses live traffic data feeds and simulations to forecast future traffic conditions for large
Urban areas and regional networks.
Real-time analysis
Aimsun Live analyzes real-time inputs from disparate sources of information, such as field traffic controllers, detectors, incident reports and live data feeds from key intersections.
Calibrated model retrieval
Using up-to-date field data, Aimsun Live identifies, retrieves, and loads a travel demand matrix for the road network being managed. It finds the closest match between the data received in real time and several demand patterns stored in a database. The demand pattern
database is created in a prior step by carrying out an analysis of historical data.
Real-time simulation
This step involves the dynamic (mesoscopic or microscopic) simulation of one or more scenarios in real time. Each scenario is simulated on a dedicated computer. The simulations produce dynamic forecasts of traffic conditions at a detailed, local level for the next 30–60 minutes. Each simulation considers a concrete set of actions that might be applied in order to improve the network situation. One of the scenarios always corresponds to the ‘do nothing' case.
The area included in the simulation model depends on the type of network being managed. It is typically defined using equilibrium assignment techniques, which evaluate at a high level the impact of local but significant capacity changes on the rest of the network. The objective is to exclude areas that are unlikely to be affected by incidents or responses to those incidents.
Simulations typically last 1–3 minutes[1] depending on hardware specifications, network size and level of congestion (number of vehicles). These simulations are run in 'batch mode' (without animation in
2D or
3D) in order to improve performance.
Online visualisation
Response information is presented visually online to provide support for operational decision making. Traffic control operators are provided with quick snapshots of predicted traffic flow and performance indicators for different control alternatives.
Other features
Customization to work with traffic control software
Assimilation of new data to improve the quality of predictions over time
Practical uses
Online travel information systems
Dynamic emergency vehicle routing
Emissions management
Accident response strategy assessments
Urban and interurban congestion management
Security threat mitigation and large-scale evacuation management
Project examples
Aimsun Live is or has been used to inform operational decisions for:
Network Emissions / Vehicle Flow Management Adjustment toolkit (NEVFMA)[2] in collaboration with
Oxfordshire County Council,
EarthSense and
Siemens Mobility. An Aimsun Live deployment, with integrated air dispersion modeling.
Central Florida Regional Integrated Corridor Management System[3] for
Florida DOT in collaboration with
Southwest Research Institute. Aimsun Live is the predictive engine that will analyze and forecast the effectiveness of response plans to mitigate congestion.
Wiesbaden: DIGI-V[4] - for the City of
Wiesbaden. Aimsun is working in collaboration with
Siemens Mobility to help lower traffic-related nitrogen oxide emissions with an extensive air pollution control package covering all areas of mobility. To achieve this reduction in traffic-related emissions, extensive environmental and traffic data will be recorded, analyzed and processed in real time.
Sydney: M4 Smart Motorway System[5] - for
Transport for New South Wales. Aimsun Live is the traffic prediction software at the heart of the NSW Government's M4 Smart Motorway project. The project uses real-time data, communications and ITS to improve traffic flow.
Singapore: 2019 technology trial for real-time traffic simulation and prediction - Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA). Aimsun collaborated with the Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA) to develop a real-time traffic simulation and predictive system in Aimsun Live.
Leicester: Urban Traffic Management and Air Quality (uTRAQ) study for the
European Space Agency in collaboration with TRL and the
University of Leicester. Satellite-generated atmospheric data helped local authorities to devise real-time traffic management strategies for reducing pollution levels.
OPTICITIES[8] -
Grand Lyon. This three-year, EC-backed pilot project showed how prediction tools could help traffic center operators anticipate and mitigate congestion, particularly at peak times.
M30, Madrid, Spain[1] Aimsun built and implemented a simulation-based traffic forecasting system for traffic evacuation and incident response operations in the Madrid traffic control center.
Ruey Long Cheu; Yanzhi Tan; Der-Horng Lee (November 2003). Comparison of PARAMICS and GETRAM/AIMSUN Microscopic Traffic Simulation Tools. 83rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board. Transportation Research Board.
S2CID17128041.
Peter Hidas (December 2005). "A functional evaluation of the AIMSUN, PARAMICS and VISSIM microsimulation models". Road & Transport Research. 14 (4): 45–59.
Steven Jones, Jr.; Daniel S. Turner; Lily Wang; Virginia Sisiopiku; Michael D. Anderson; Roy Berryman; Abhishek Acharya (May 2009).
Performance Measures for Arterial Traffic Signal Systems(PDF) (Report). University Transportation Center for Alabama. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2019-06-28.