CONICYT ERANet ELAC 2015/T10-0761 Web Site

In collaboration with Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Mexico), Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (Latvia), Transilvania University of Brasov (Romania)

Cities around the world are experiencing great challenges in terms of resiliency and adaptability in the face of fast growing populations, high dependency of critical infrastructure (e.g., power network availability, public transit availability, among others), and extreme –sometimes catastrophic– events. In general terms, the more complex the transportation system, the greater the potential for disruptions. Therefore, we address resiliency in transport systems from the perspective of ICT-based research. Our objectives are the following:

1) To integrate advanced data analysis, novel models of traffic behavior, and visualization to provide real time decision support systems based on proposed algorithms and methods.

2) To design adaptable and sustainable transport infrastructure through the use of renewable energy sources in microgrids for urban electric vehicles.

3) To design secure communication and networking protocols that support real time decision making from users, and enable a resilient operation of urban transportation in cases of disruptions, outages, and disaster events.

This project requires integration of computing, communications, and control methods with the aim of enabling resilient urban transportation systems in smart cites. Results derived from the proposal may benefit future city design and developing plans, especially in large cities of developed and developing countries.

CONICYT FONDECYT Iniciación 11140045, UCHILE U-INICIA 2014-05

Among the open research fields in vehicular communications, the heterogeneous vehicular network is the topic of interest in this project. In the vehicular networking context, a large part of existent research has been focusing on developing and studying the performance of network protocols for a specific radio access technology. However, it has been widely accepted that the supporting infrastructure and communications technologies for vehicular networks will be heterogeneous in nature, hence providing network diversity. Large coverage access networks, such as 3G/4G cellular and WiMAX networks, will be combined with wireless local area networks (WLAN), such as 802.11b/g/n. Moreover, they will also integrate technologies specifically designed for vehicular environments, such as the 802.11p DSRC technology.

The general goal of this project is to exploit the network diversity in a heterogeneous vehicular network for designing a dissemination mechanism suitable for traffic efficiency applications, achieving an improved performance and a seamless communications experience for users of an urban vehicular network. In addition, we will considered multi-hop communications powered by the 802.11p DSCR technology, which will help improve coverage for short-range networks and reduce communication delays.

In collaboration with Dr. Juan Salamanca – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Bicycle use has steadily risen its share of total urban traffic over the last decade. This has been the result of city governments’ promotion of alternative forms of transportation, in the search for finding strategies that help reduce traffic congestion. Although benefits of cycling in congestion and pollution are concrete, in several cities the increment of cyclists has gotten to the point to overflow the infrastructure, deriving in safety risks and gridlocks due to the lack of explicit coordination among cyclists. This project is the integration of two strategies that so far have been considered completely independent: cooperative driving and cycling.

Our project addresses the coordination of collective behavior of platoons of cyclists that could pervade dedicated express roads such as the London’s 18 mile East-West Cycle Superhighway. The proposed platoon-based cyclists cooperative system can be defined as a networked cyber-physical system with an additional challenge related to the human factor. Different from traditional automated platooning, in the proposed system cyclists respond to a Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control delivered through specific human-machine interfaces (HMI) designed to elicit the expected response from cyclists.

In collaboration with NICLabs and Gabriel Montenegro (Microsoft)

In the Internet of Things (IoT) constrained devices are common. These devices have limited RAM and ROM memory, reduced battery, processing capacity and transmission power. In consequence, these devices may not work properly with traditional Internet protocols like TCP and HTTP that were not created for constrained scenarios. In a first stage of this project, we evaluate the recently standardized protocol HTTP/2 for IoT scenarios; the parameters of HTTP/2 concurrent streams and window size are changed and evaluated in terms of use of CPU, use of memory, response times and energy consumption in experimental settings with IoT constrained devices and constrained networks. With this work, we hope to promote the discussion of HTTP/2 for IoT and to contribute to an eventual standardization of extensions for the protocol.

In collaboration with Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (Colombia)

Smart Grid is the electricity delivery system that intends to enhance reliability, efficiency, and security of the power grid. A fundamental component of this intelligent network is an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), which provides a two-way communication flow between Utilities and meters at the customer side. While several Utilities are implementing first approximations to an AMI, there is no certainty that future traffic of different natures can be supported throughout these deployments. We carry out an extensive review of the communication technologies that are employed for the implementation of AMI, as well as performance evaluations and comparisons through simulations of routing algorithms for Neighborhood Area Networks for AMI, as well as simulations of NAN access technologies and protocols, in pursuit of a better understanding of the primary challenges that will have to be faced for the development and enhancement of AMI networks.

In collaboration with Prof. Cristián Cortés and the ISCI

Today the advances in technology have changed the paradigms behind the planning, fleet design and optimization processes associated with massive transport systems, moving to a world where the dispatch and routing decisions made online by systems’ operators as well as normal people driving their own car, are based on real-time information from the conditions of the whole system performance. In addition, other actors of the transportation system such as bicycles and pedestrians have to be considered in modern models of transportation as well as in evaluations through simulations. In the frame of this projectn we have developed an adaptation of the renowned VEINS bidirectional simulation framework for use with traffic simulator Paramics, in order to test routing and planning models for public transportation. We also use VEINS for the evaluation of novel applications for safer transportation systems, such as collision prevention at intersections for vehicles and cyclists based on prediction models and algorithms.

Cisco Research Grant #2019-199458 (3696). In collaboration with NIC Labs and Dr. Juan Salamanca (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

The advancement in vehicular technologies and informatics has led to an interdisciplinary field known as "connected vehicles." By connecting vehicles with various devices, services, and participants, we can make our mobility more enjoyable and sustainable. The concept of connected vehicles and the development of the associated communication technologies (i.e., IEEE 802.11OCB —previously known as 802.11p— and C-V2X, among others) are reaching a mature state. Consequently, a new concept, known as the Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), appears since vehicles will be able to cooperate with other vehicles, with the infrastructure, and with the whole traffic network. Nevertheless, a real Cooperative ITS not only considers cars, trucks, and public transport among the intervening actors; vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians, bicycles, and motorcycles are also part of such a system. This project seeks to answer the following general question: what is missing for transferring the benefits of road safety improvements--based on connected vehicles technology--to the vulnerable road users? We plan to answer the question by exploring the vehicular networking protocols and designing dissemination mechanisms and other networking protocols that will consider the VRUs in the design process.