Mobility of the future

The project addresses the question of optimal system layout for facilitating decentralized control and optimal operation of a network of power converters with generators, storages and loads. Special emphasis is placed on the system capability of operating in a decentralized fashion to meet specific local control objectives (e.g. keeping the local voltage within prescribed limits) and system-wide control objectives (e.g. fair proportional load sharing among the inverters, provision of ancillary services). Sensitivity analysis will enable to define the boundaries of a completely decentralized structure and where adding a hierarchical level enables a significant performance improvement.

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.

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.

In public transport disruptions, the choice of travelers is only among the alternatives they are aware of. The understanding of the travelers under an unexpected disruptive event is limited, often based on incomplete, untimely information, which causes much frustration, and limits the potential of any optimal disposition timetable, found by optimization methods. This project uses real time information as a pervasive sensing device; determines a framework determining feedback actions, and disseminates transit information to operators and travellers, seen as a pervasive control instrument.

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.

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.

We will demonstrate that multiple competitive agents can efficiently share a mobility infrastructure without the need for an external coordinator. Standard game-theoretic approaches to this problem fall short in case of dynamic systems as encountered in autonomous mobility, coordinated use of the mobility space, traffic congestion control, etc.  We will develop a new mathematical formalism and computational methods blending the concept of game-theoretic and dynamic equilibria. Autonomous mobility is an important application due to the importance of fairness and efficiency in resource use, the large number of interacting agents, and the need for automated and scalable solutions.