Achievements of the project exceeded initial plans. Within WP1, we worked in parallel on four methodological avenues to derive efficient vehicle movement strategies, namely using ad-hoc, reinforcement learning, optimal control and nonlinear feedback control approaches. In addition, various lane-free vehicle formations, such as 1-D snake-like vehicle platoons and flexible 2-D vehicle flocks, were designed. Within WP2, the open-source TrafficFluid-Sim microscopic simulator was developed for both highway and urban road network traffic. Also, macroscopic models for lane-free traffic with nudging were developed, both analytically and empirically. Finally, within WP3, pioneering achievements concerned the innovative and very promising internal boundary control (IBC); ramp metering and speed control on highways; and signal-free lane-free urban intersection operation involving CAVs, platoons, pedestrians and cyclists.
Dissemination activities include:
a) The project’s website www.trafficfluid.tuc.gr that will be maintained after the project’s completion.
b) Articles (in the most renowned journals and conferences in the area): 28 journal, 55 conference articles; with some more journal papers to follow.
c) 22 research-related video groups to illustrate research results.
d) Beyond the conference paper presentations, the PI and TrafficFluid members delivered 71 invited presentations at research organisations and scientific events in 22 countries, among them several keynote presentations.
e) Organisation of 8 seminars of external scientists.
f) Organisation of a joint Workshop on "Lane-free Traffic" at the Technical University of Crete by the TrafficFluid project and the Chair of Traffic Engineering and Control, Technical University of Munich, Germany, on 2, 5 and 6 June 2023.
g) Organisation of Special Sessions at conferences and Special Issues at journals.
h) Hosting of 6 visitors from Germany, USA, France, Italy, China and Finland respectively, over 2-4 months each.
i) Several media reports and interviews.
Finally, collaboration with four research groups from: Technical University of Munich, Germany; Zhejiang University, China; ETH Zurich, Switzerland; and Aalto University, Finland was agreed and has been ongoing on issues related to the TrafficFluid paradigm, leading to many joint publications.
The project opened a new promising research and developing area that attracted the interest of many research groups globally. International research is ongoing in this new domain and pilot deployments are planned.
