More Detailed Information on the Project
Project Description
Emergency vehicle (EMV) response times have degraded due to increasing urbanization and resulting congestion. Evaluating interventions to mitigate this degradation is too costly to be done in the field. This project will build a traffic digital twin (TDT) to be developed in collaboration with FDNY as a virtual test bed to evaluate interventions and support decision-making and planning in a safe simulation environment. The TDT will be built on the open source Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) microscopic continuous traffic simulation. Key challenges are incorporating AI to learn non-EMV driver responses to EMV signals (sirens, V2X technologies) and to train the TDT to different traffic states using historical traffic data and dispatch data from FDNY.
The scope of work can be summarized as:
1. Development and calibration of a baseline SUMO simulation for FDNY district M6 in Harlem, NYC.
2. Combining traffic data and camera data at the same time to develop an AI model for traffic state prediction in the digital twin
3. Combining EMV GPS data and the traffic state data to statistically learn non-EMV behavioral responses (response reaction time, etc.)
4. Developing simulation-based intervention optimization and test using out-of-sample observations
Related Media
Can A.I. Help the Fire Trucks Show Up Sooner?
New York Times, January 26, 2024
Click Here
Research Outcomes/Impacts
The impact of this work will be measured through average simulated response times. The status quo will be used as a baseline, such that the impact on Transformation is clear through the use of digital twin to identify alternative strategies.
In addition, the target area of the simulation is a lower-income neighborhood with majority residents of color in New York City. Synthetic population data developed by the researchers for New York City in prior research will be used to quantify the impact of the response time improvements on different population segments in the target area, These findings will contribute to better understanding and improving equity disparities in emergency response time.
Finally, as a replicable outcome of this work, guidelines for other emergency agencies around the country to adopt such a Traffic Digital Twin and/or interventions, particularly those in congested urban areas.
Deliverables
Coming Soon
Datasets
Coming Soon
Details
- Project Title
An AI-reinforced Traffic Digital Twin for Testing Emergency Vehicle Interventions
- Recipient/Grant (Contract) Number
69A3551747124
- Center Name
Connected Communities for Smart Mobility Towards Accessible & Resilient Transportation for Equitably Reducing Congestion (C2SMARTER)
- Research Priority
Reducing Congestion
- Principal Investigator
Joseph Chow
- Co-Principal Investigator(s)
Kaan Ozbay, Jingqin Gao
- Project Partners
New York City Fire Department (FDNY)
- Research Project Funding
$146,000 ($90,000 federal, $56,000 non-federal)
- Start and End Date
2023-10-01 ~ 2024-09-30
- Final Research Report
Coming Soon
- Research Project Requirement TemplateC2SMARTER-2023-NYU-Chow-Research Project Info.pdf