They develop an urban fleet simulator to promote active and sustainable mobility in cities

VALENCIA, 14 Dec. (EUROPA PRESS) -

A team from the Valencian University Institute for Research in Artificial Intelligence (VRAIN) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) is developing an urban fleet simulator to promote "active and sustainable" mobility in cities.

The simulator incorporates advanced technology that combines artificial intelligence, efficient processing of large amounts of data and Distributed Registry Technology (DTL) - an electronic system for recording information that is not executed by a single entity.

Its objective, explains the university, is to promote "cleaner" urban transportation and the active mobility of citizens so that sedentary lifestyles, pollution in large cities and the mitigation of climate change are reduced.

This simulator, designed especially for public or private organizations that make mobility decisions in cities, is integrated with a mobile application designed for citizens and users of bike-sharing systems on the ActiveEdgeMobile project platform. This platform monitors and records the means of transportation used by citizens, as well as last mile couriers.

In addition, the ActivEdgeMobile platform integrates algorithms to influence user behavior, and through low-power Distributed Registry Technology, citizens will perceive a direct benefit from using the app as they can earn green digital tokens to use as discounts or privileges in services or products offered by public or private entities.

This urban fleet simulator, for which the VRAIN institute team at the UPV is working, "will be improved in terms of scalability to support large data loads and will be adapted to operate in a cloud environment." Charging generators will also be developed based on real data from the target cities, which will allow more realistic and effective simulations to be carried out," explains VRAIN's principal investigator in the ActivEdgeMobile project, Vicente Julián.

The UPV recalls that, according to the United Nations, 55% of the world's population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to reach 68% in 2050. In Europe, the current urban population rate was 74% in 2018 and In regions such as North America the level is already 82%. This growth is causing an increase in traffic or air pollution, the main challenges to be resolved in the management of large cities.

In fact, the cost of human lives due to poor air quality, according to the European Commission, is even worse than traffic accidents, and it is already the leading cause of premature death in Europe.

The ActivEdgeMobile project "is an innovative proposal that encourages the active use of digital technologies and the paradigm of smart cities and territories to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality in urban environments using DLTs, Edge Computing and Artificial Intelligence," underlines the VRAIN principal investigator in the ActivEdgeMobile project.

The initiative, financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union, with a duration of two years, from December 2022 to December 2024, is at the end of its first year. In addition to the VRAIN team of researchers from the UPV, researchers from the University of Salamanca participate in it.