A groundbreaking idea for site visitors group within the period of related and autonomous autos (CAV), often known as TrafficFluid, was offered at Wrocław University of Science and Technology by Prof. Markos Papageorgiou (Technical University of Crete).
The Greek scientist, one of many world’s most extremely regarded consultants in transport methods and site visitors management, was the visitor speaker on the first Interdisciplinary Scientific Seminar of Wrocław University of Science and Technology in 2026.
The occasion was co-organized by the Wrocław branch of Academia Europaea.
In conventional street site visitors, lanes are the inspiration of order, however they’re additionally a supply of many dangerous maneuvers—particularly lane modifications, which regularly set off sudden braking and site visitors congestion. The TrafficFluid idea proposes a lane-free method, by which autonomous autos transfer extra easily and safely with out clearly marked lanes.
Such a mannequin can enhance street capability by higher use of its width, whereas additionally decreasing maneuvers that result in bottlenecks. It permits versatile “sharing” of roadway width between site visitors instructions—even in actual time—relying on site visitors volumes in every course.
The second pillar of the idea is car nudging, a mechanism of subtly influencing autos not solely from behind, but additionally laterally or from the entrance. Unlike human-pushed autos, whose reactions are largely restricted to what occurs forward of them, autonomous autos can coordinate their conduct in a number of instructions concurrently.
The result’s larger site visitors stability and smoothness, in addition to improved effectivity of the street community.
From concept to actual-world eventualities
During the lecture “Automated Cars: A Lane-Free Future” , Prof. Papageorgiou offered the important thing analysis instructions associated to the TrafficFluid idea.
These embrace, amongst others, site visitors management of autonomous autos in a lane-free setting, trajectory planning for particular person autos and teams of autos, the formation of versatile “platoons” and two-dimensional car “flocks,” macroscopic site visitors modeling, inner management of street capability boundaries, and options for complicated city environments reminiscent of roundabouts and unsignalized intersections.
Who is Prof. Markos Papageorgiou?
Prof. Markos Papageorgiou is a world-famend skilled in automated management and optimization in transportation methods. He earned his tutorial levels on the Technical University of Munich and for a few years performed analysis and collaborated, amongst others, with INRETS in Paris. He served as a professor on the Technical University of Munich and, since 1994, has been affiliated with the Technical University of Crete, the place he presently holds the title of Professor Emeritus. Since 2021, he has additionally been a professor at Ningbo University in China.
He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the celebrated journal Transportation Research – Part C. He is a member of IEEE and IFAC, and a fellow of the distinguished Academia Europaea. He is the recipient of quite a few awards and honors, together with two ERC Advanced Grants.