IITH launches testbed for low-carbon transport models

Besides Hyderabad, traffic monitoring done in Ahmedabad to compare differences

The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) on Tuesday launched an ‘M2Smart Project’ Testbed to develop low-carbon models for Indian transportation. IIT and Japanese researchers and officials from Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Traffic Police and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) were present.

The testbed would generate a practical ‘handbook’ on low-carbon urban transportation for developing countries based on big data of Indian transportation and create traffic flow models from data analysis.

The field testbed system was deployed on IIT-H campus and along a 30-km stretch of NH-65. There are many key components of traffic management system such as real-time traffic flow monitoring using cameras and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi sensors, speed detection safety system, conflict warning system using traffic signal lights and remote environment gas sensing on IIT-H campus as well as NH 65.

Electric rickshaws also run on the campus and are used to understand the driving cycle of e-vehicles and to implement the V2X technology.

Traffic monitoring is done not only in Hyderabad city but also Ahmedabad city to monitor and compare differences between the two cities real-time.

Prof. U.B. Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad, said, “Reducing carbon footprint is the need of the hour. India has diverse modes of transportation and we need to understand this diverse mobility much better. The testbed under the M2Smart project is aimed at this fundamental objective. ”

The testbed will also work on the development of intersection decision support system to help drivers recognise risky conditions to avoid collision.

Dr. Bheemarjuna Reddy Tamma, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, said: “As a part of the project, we are developing CO2 emission estimation methodologies for estimation of energy and CO2 emission reduction by route choice and mode choice provided using IoT based traffic management system i.e., VMS (Variable Message Sign) displays and Multimodal App (MMA) for smart phones.”

‘M2Smart’ (Smart Cities for Emerging Countries based on Sensing, Network and Big Data Analysis of Multimodal Regional Transport System) is a joint research project under Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development Program between India and Japan.

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