Next Phase of Aurora Development

The Aurora research and development in the next phase of TOPL will address the following issues.

1. Support for complex link state.
Currently the state of the link is defined by the vehicle density, it is a scalar value. We would like to define the state as a vector of densities marked by vehicle types. The types of vehicles may be HOV-enabled, trucks, or ordinary vehicles. Vector-state will also allow us to approach the DTA problem, as in the DTA setting vehicles are characterized by the OD pairs.

2. Analysis module of Aurora.
Properly organized database that stores the simulation results is a key factor in the effective performance analysis of road networks. This module may include

• actual travel time computation for the specified routes;
• bottleneck identification;
• analysis of stochastic demands and capacities.
  

3. New control algorithms for the ramps and arterials.
These include

• system-wide ramp metering algorithms such as SWARM 1;
• signal control with adaptive rate and coordinated signals on arterials; and
• coordinated arterial signals and ramp metering.
  

4. Road network configuration management.
Proper organization and maintenance of configuration files will separate the network geometry from the event scenarios and demand profiles. This will allow to keep rarely updated and frequently updated configuration portions apart. The other goal is to simplify the process of building complex networks using the existing configuration files for their sub-networks.