A model for new data - using air borne traffic flow measurement for traffic forecast

INTRODUCTION In the last few years a system for real time air borne traffic flow measurement was developed. During the Soccer World Cup which took place in Germany, three different air borne systems for traffic flow measurement have been set-up to provide organizers and police the current traffic situation and a short term forecast. The systems are called “Air borne Traffic Analyzer ANTAR” (hardware) and “Traffic Finder” (software). In the cities of Stuttgart, Cologne and Berlin complex systems were installed consisting of automated image analysis and sensors on different air borne platforms like airship, helicopter, or airplane. The systems provide data like measured density, traffic flow, or the field of trajectories of all detected vehicles. Within the demonstration project SOCCER (traffic information and traffic forecast) in two cities simulations for forecast of the traffic state were developed: a microscopic model in Berlin and a queuing model in Cologne. Both models are based on the common parameters (I) average of density and (II) average of speed. The air borne traffic flow measurement approach is able to generate much more interesting traffic variables. This paper will show the overall system which was set-up in Stuttgart based on a helicopter of the police of Baden-Wurttemberg as an introduction for a new model idea using the more sophisticated data an air borne system can provide. It shows the air borne sensors, the automated picture computing for traffic flow measurement and the data fusion for current traffic information and forecast. The model presented here in the second part of the paper differs from ordinary continuum models, which calculate the flow from cell to cell, in the sense that it uses traffic patterns to classify the actual traffic state and estimates future states according to the actual state and the road’s characteristics ahead. The model aims to simulate the formation of traffic clusters, flow and density for short term forecast. In this paragraph the structure and methodology of the simulation model are explained briefly.