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Nikolas Geroliminis

Prof. Dr.
Nikolas Geroliminis
PI
Executive Committee Member
EPF Lausanne
nikolas.geroliminis@epfl.ch
Curriculum Vitae
NCCR Automation will revolutionize how emerging technologies and intelligent systems can reshape mobility in resilient and sustainable ways.

Prof. Nikolas Geroliminis is an Associate Professor at EPFL and the head of the Urban Transport Systems Lab. Before joining EPFL he was an Assistant Professor  at the U of Minnesota. He has a diploma in Civil Engineering from NTU Athens and a MSc and Ph.D. in civil engineering from UC Berkeley.  He is the Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research part C: Emerging Technologies . His research interests focus on transport systems, traffic modeling and control,  on-demand transport, car sharing, optimization and  networks. He is a recipient of the ERC Starting Grant METAFERW: Modeling and controlling traffic congestion and propagation in large-scale urban multimodal networks. Among his recent initiatives is the creation of an open-science large-scale dataset of naturalistic urban trajectories collected  by a swarm of drones experiment ( https://open-traffic.epfl.ch).

Scientific Publications

Published
Data-Enabled Predictive Control for Empty Vehicle Rebalancing
European Control Conference (ECC 23)
Pengbo Zhu, Giancarlo Ferrari-Trecate, Nikolas Geroliminis
Collection
Published
Hierarchical Pricing Game for Balancing the Charging of Ride-Hailing Electric Fleets
IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology
Marko Maljkovic, Nikolas Geroliminis
Doi.org Collection
Published
On Finding the Leader's Strategy in Quadratic Aggregative Stackelberg Pricing Games
European Control Conference (ECC 23)
Marko Maljkovic, Nikolas Geroliminis
Doi.org Collection
Published
On the utilization of dedicated bus lanes for pooled ride-hailing services
Transportation Research Part B: Methodological
Vol 169 Pages 29-52
Lynn Fayed, Nikolas Geroliminis
Doi.org Collection
Published
Idle-vehicle rebalancing coverage control for ride-sourcing systems
2022 European Control Conference (ECC)
Pages 1970-1975
Pengbo Zhu, Isik Ilber Sirmatel, Giancarlo Ferrari-Trecate, Nikolas Geroliminis
Doi.org Collection
Published
Incentive-based electric vehicle charging for managing bottleneck congestion
European Journal of Control
Carlo Cenedese, Patrick Stokkink, Nikolas Geroliminis, John Lygeros
Doi.org Collection
Published
A Pricing Mechanism for Balancing the Charging of Ride Hailing Electric Vehicle Fleets
2022 European Control Conference (ECC)
Pages 1976-1981
Marko Maljkovic, Nikolas Geroliminis
Doi.org Collection
Stabilization of city-scale road traffic networks via macroscopic fundamental diagram-based model predictive perimeter control
Control Engineering Practice
Vol 109 No 104750
Isik Ilber Sirmatel, Nikolas Geroliminis
Collection
Modeling, estimation, and control in large-scale urban road networks with remaining travel distance dynamics
Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies
Vol 128 No 103157
Isik Ilber Sirmatel, Anastasios Kouvelas, Nikolas Geroliminis
Doi.org Collection

Research projects

Title
Principal Investigators

Optimization of space allocation for multi-modal transport systems

Nikolas Geroliminis

Summary

To improve mobility, urban space should be allocated spatiotemporally for travellers that are willing to use different modes of transport (shared mobility, autonomous vehicles,  public transport). Some streets could admittedly be reserved (similarly to dedicated bus lanes) but more effort is needed to create fully connected sub-networks that provides access to all parts of the city. Another  alternative would be time segregation, fully time-based (capacity is allocated to only one class of vehicles at a time), or hybrid (spatial but time-dependent) with temporary reserved lanes. How to develop real-time feedback-oriented control strategies for infrastructure management and how to integrate with operational strategies for the individual modes that are controlled by different operators is an additional challenge.

People involved

NCCR – People
Nikolas Geroliminis, Fayed Lynn
Optimization of space allocation for multi-modal transport systems
Nikolas Geroliminis

To improve mobility, urban space should be allocated spatiotemporally for travellers that are willing to use different modes of transport (shared mobility, autonomous vehicles,  public transport). Some streets could admittedly be reserved (similarly to dedicated bus lanes) but more effort is needed to create fully connected sub-networks that provides access to all parts of the city. Another  alternative would be time segregation, fully time-based (capacity is allocated to only one class of vehicles at a time), or hybrid (spatial but time-dependent) with temporary reserved lanes. How to develop real-time feedback-oriented control strategies for infrastructure management and how to integrate with operational strategies for the individual modes that are controlled by different operators is an additional challenge.

NCCR – People
Nikolas Geroliminis, Fayed Lynn
141
58997232-70ac-4557-98b7-e87940b7c374

Large-scale hierarchical and distributed control for congested urban networks

Nikolas Geroliminis

Summary

Decentralized algorithms for governing multi-modal transport networks with multiple entities and operators might not work properly when congestion is unevenly distributed. As we are scaling-up from the local bottleneck-oriented issues we must consider how local regulators (e.g. traffic lights, ramp meters, pricing) can best communicate in a distributed manner to reach an agreement on their control decisions, so as to ensure local cooperation with its geographical neighbours towards realization of city-level mobility objectives. Establishing proper rules and mechanisms within each subsystem allows self-organization of individual components while ensuring coherence.

People involved

Nikolas Geroliminis, Isik Ilber Sirmatel
Large-scale hierarchical and distributed control for congested urban networks
Nikolas Geroliminis

Decentralized algorithms for governing multi-modal transport networks with multiple entities and operators might not work properly when congestion is unevenly distributed. As we are scaling-up from the local bottleneck-oriented issues we must consider how local regulators (e.g. traffic lights, ramp meters, pricing) can best communicate in a distributed manner to reach an agreement on their control decisions, so as to ensure local cooperation with its geographical neighbours towards realization of city-level mobility objectives. Establishing proper rules and mechanisms within each subsystem allows self-organization of individual components while ensuring coherence.

Nikolas Geroliminis, Isik Ilber Sirmatel
139
be01ba18-f879-4485-b815-182184701590

Coupled incentives to ease congestion on the electricity and road networks

John Lygeros, Nikolas Geroliminis

Summary

The electrification of transportation forecast for the near future will couple two problems of similar nature that have been studied independently until now: congestion on the road network and congestion on the electric network. In this project, we will study the viability of coordinated incentives that exploit this coupling to simultaneously ease these congestions more effectively than independently designed incentives.

People involved

John Lygeros, Nikolas Geroliminis, Carlo Cenedese
Coupled incentives to ease congestion on the electricity and road networks
John Lygeros, Nikolas Geroliminis

The electrification of transportation forecast for the near future will couple two problems of similar nature that have been studied independently until now: congestion on the road network and congestion on the electric network. In this project, we will study the viability of coordinated incentives that exploit this coupling to simultaneously ease these congestions more effectively than independently designed incentives.

John Lygeros, Nikolas Geroliminis, Carlo Cenedese
118
9505eadd-0857-434d-9fa7-1b5b0a84194c

Distributed Dynamic Coverage Control for On-Demand Transportation Operations

Nikolas Geroliminis, Giancarlo Ferrari-Trecate, John Lygeros

Summary

Emerging shared-mobility systems create additional opportunities to decrease car ownership and congestion. Asymmetric demand creates imbalances in the distribution of vehicles for these systems. To maximize the covered demand and decrease the waiting time of passengers, vehicle distribution has to be rebalanced with relocations. The potentially very high number of vehicles necessitates using distributed control algorithms to efficiently solve this problem. Presence of multiple companies competing to serve the same demand can be addressed via game theoretic approaches. Μatching algorithms to create shared rides can be combined with the coverage problem to increase coverage in areas with high demand. Fairness in covering low demand areas will also be investigated.

People involved

Pengbo Zhu
Nikolas Geroliminis, Giancarlo Ferrari-Trecate, John Lygeros, Pengbo Zhu, , Isik Ilber Sirmatel
Distributed Dynamic Coverage Control for On-Demand Transportation Operations
Nikolas Geroliminis, Giancarlo Ferrari-Trecate, John Lygeros

Emerging shared-mobility systems create additional opportunities to decrease car ownership and congestion. Asymmetric demand creates imbalances in the distribution of vehicles for these systems. To maximize the covered demand and decrease the waiting time of passengers, vehicle distribution has to be rebalanced with relocations. The potentially very high number of vehicles necessitates using distributed control algorithms to efficiently solve this problem. Presence of multiple companies competing to serve the same demand can be addressed via game theoretic approaches. Μatching algorithms to create shared rides can be combined with the coverage problem to increase coverage in areas with high demand. Fairness in covering low demand areas will also be investigated.

Pengbo Zhu
Nikolas Geroliminis, Giancarlo Ferrari-Trecate, John Lygeros, Pengbo Zhu, , Isik Ilber Sirmatel
105
91547dbb-fb8b-4801-9b24-09f41492e308

News & Insights

Sisslerfeld
24-10-2023
Founding the Sisslerfeld Living Lab Association
Sisslerfeld
On October 24, 2023, the founding meeting of the "Reallabor Sisslerfeld" took place in Münchwilen. The "Verein" (association) will concentrate on creating a living lab for energy and mobility topics. Among those present at the ceremony were Dieter Egli, Cantonal Government Councillor of Aargau and the President of ETH Zurich, Joël Mesot, as well as other high-ranking representatives from politics, administration, research and industry.