Programs & Labs
Winter 2003
Interactive simulations enhance ITS education, outreach
ITS Laboratory Senior Systems Engineer Chen-fu Liao
Would you like to experiment with traffic flow on the streets of Minneapolis? At the University of Minnesota's ITS Laboratory, Senior Systems Engineer Chen-fu Liao is working on tools to give researchers, students, and eventually the public access to advanced computer-generated traffic simulation systems.
Traffic simulators are among the most important tools in ITS research because they enable researchers to study the effects of ITS technologies in the laboratory and optimize them prior to implementation. However, their use is often restricted to advanced researchers with access to special facilities.
By introducing students in diverse engineering disciplines to traffic simulation, Liao's simulation modules will help the ITS Institute expand the understanding and application of intelligent transportation systems.
Enhancing current course offerings
After joining the ITS Laboratory in 2002, Liao began supporting simulator use and developing simulation-based modules for several transportation-related courses in the civil engineering department. His first task was to support the simulation module used in a transportation engineering course taught by Associate Professor Gary Davis in the fall of 2002, focusing on freeway ramp metering and capacity expansion.
The module uses Kronos 9, a macroscopic simulation package developed at the University of Minnesota. Macroscopic simulators model groups of vehicles, called "platoons," moving through the simulation environment. In this case, a section of State Highway 169 near Minneapolis was selected as the test area, and students were able to analyze and compare different traffic management strategies on this important commuter route.
The view from the driver's seat
Liao is also working on an ambitious project to develop a virtual reality traffic simulation environment for use over the Web. This module will allow users to control parameters such as traffic volume and signal timing, then watch the results play out in a realistic artificial world. Users of the advanced simulation module will be able to observe traffic behavior from any vantage point—from overhead to street level, or even from the driver's seat of a vehicle on the road.
The new module will be targeted at undergraduate and high school students, traffic engineers, and distance-learning students at the University. Liao says he hopes users will "have fun while learning, and learn while having fun."
Using Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), Liao is currently constructing a detailed electronic model of the streets and buildings along a section of Washington Avenue near the East Bank campus. These streets will be populated with virtual vehicles, generated by a traffic simulation application in the ITS Lab. An added benefit of the virtual reality environment is that it can be used in other simulation projects, such as the HumanFIRST Program's advanced driving simulator and the ITS Laboratory's Digital Immersive Environment (DEN). [See Sensor, Spring 2002]
In the future, Liao plans to continue supporting simulation modules used in various engineering courses and to develop new lab modules focused on different ITS technologies, such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS).