A team led by Professor Nikolas Geroliminis, head of the Laboratory for Urban Transport Systems ( LUTS ) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne , is measuring traffic with unprecedented accuracy. It uses swarms of drones to do this. It converts the video images into algorithms and analyzes the data. “Our goal is not to monitor traffic, but to find the causes of traffic jams and offer fact-based solutions,” postdoc Manos Barmpounakis is quoted as saying in a statement .
The LUTS tested its multidisciplinary approach in 2018 and 2019. Last summer it was tested in the monitoring and evaluation of parking areas in the port of Pully VD. In mid-May 2022, a new experiment was conducted in Nairobi, the city ranked 4th in the world in terms of congestion. It turned out that cultural peculiarities such as the minibuses called Matatus, “which drop off and pick up passengers as required in an indescribable traffic chaos” also have to be taken into account. Traditional modeling approaches are not directly applicable to this.
For further experiments, the laboratory received a grant from the innovation agency Innosuisse . This technology, called CityDronics, is to be further developed into a marketable solution by a start-up based in Switzerland. It will be the first to integrate drones into urban mobility. With multi-sensors, the drones could also measure exposure to CO2 and noise. Several cities are already interested in CityDronics.