Researchers at the i2CAT research centre have developed a vehicular digital twin to optimise the efficiency of public transport in urban environments, in collaboration with the companies ACISA and Aimsun.

The solution allows traffic monitoring and the establishment of different optimisation strategies for the circulation of public transport and emergency vehicles through an intelligent traffic light control system. Sensors were installed on the road infrastructure to collect data from passing vehicles, providing continuous information on traffic conditions such as intensity or level of congestion.

Demonstrations in the City of Terrassa

For the tests, a vehicle was equipped with an on-board unit (OBU) that facilitates communication between the vehicle and the infrastructure, allowing it to receive system decisions (in addition to other V2X services), responsible for establishing different strategies based on current traffic conditions.

Researchers conducted two demonstrations at the roundabout between Avenue Jaume I and Periodista Grané Street in the city of Terrassa to test the solution’s response in a real scenario. The first demonstration aimed to show how the vehicle can send bus priority requests to the system to ensure timely arrival at its destination. The second demonstration focused on verifying that the system can adapt the traffic light plan in real-time and circulation priorities in response to a hypothetical incident on the road, such as a traffic jam or an accident.

“The goal of 6GTWINROAD is to develop digital twins of urban and interurban mobility scenarios to improve traffic efficiency and safety. We inject road status information into the digital twin, which is a virtual replica of the mobility scenario. For this, we use sensors deployed along the infrastructure. With all this information, the digital twin makes decisions on actions to optimise traffic and reduce pollution levels,” explains Francisco Vázquez Gallego, V2X research leader at i2CAT.

“For ACISA, participating in a project like 6GTWINROAD is a great opportunity as it allows us to advance our strategy of integrating the V2X communication standard into our mobility management models through digital twins, enabling much more efficient, safe, and sustainable traffic management. And what better way to do it than with a research centre like i2CAT,” says Antonio Lalaguna, CTO and Research Lead at ACISA.

“Aimsun has provided a simulator and AI-based models for the digital twin that allow it to evaluate different scenarios, feeding it with real-time data and providing metrics (KPIs) that indicate the benefits obtained from the new priority system and in case of congestion,” explains Jordi Casas, Global Head of R&D at Aimsun.

6GTWINROAD

This use case and demonstration is part of the larger 6GTWINROAD research project, which in turn is part of the UNICO I+D 6G programme, funded by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function and the European Union-Next Generation EU through the Spanish Government’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

6GTWINROAD aims to improve public transport within urban environments and surpass the current model, where public vehicles (buses and emergency vehicles) must coexist with private vehicles in highly complex traffic situations.