The cities prepare to adapt the systems of transport to the increase of inhabitants

The progressive concentration of people in the urban zones is a phenomenon that does not cease to increase. In Spain, 7 of each 10 inhabitants live in big cities or adjacent populations that have gone joining to the main urban core, conforming a densely populated area and that requires of common strategies of management of the territory and of his services. In this context, the ordenación of the transport and the mobility of the people is increasingly an essential factor, that will allow to guarantee the success of the called “intelligent cities”.

The Dr. Jordi Marquet, director of the Parc of Recerca UAB, entity organiser of the day 'Mobility and transport in the Smart Cities', explains that “one of the keys of the success of the intelligent cities will be the ordenación of the mobility and the transport of people and commodities, a field in which researchers of the Pruab are working with the aim to develop projects that improve the quality of life of the citizen of the big cities”.

During the meeting, researchers and professionals of the sector presented the last novelties and explained his experiences in a field in which necessarily they will have to bet the big metropoles for racionalizar the traffic and to increase the hygiene and the economic and environingingmental sustainability that supposes to displace to million people each day.

Between the technological innovations that presented , stand out devices like echo- Drivers, thanks to the cual will be able to reduce the accidents of traffic, or applications of mobile like OnTheBus, that will allow to the citizens move with greater efficiency by the city. “According to our forecasts, some of the projects that have presented in the day will see the light in the near future”, explains the Dr. Marquet. “One of the aims prioritarios of the Day was to establish future collaborations between the participants, from the contacts generated between researchers and investors, in an effort for improving the microempresa technological like engine of dinamización of the intelligent city”, adds.

The event, that framed in the cycle of Business Meetings UAB30, explained, besides, with the participation of companies like Abertis Telecom, Indra or Idom, companies that have bet by the investigation and the development of innovative projects that repercuten to a better quality of life in the urban cores.

The project echo-Drivers is an innovative assistant to the driving that, thanks to video-image and artificial intelligence, will contribute to diminish the accidents of traffic.

“When being based in the vision by computer, and no in active sensors like the radar, our device will be able to be implanted in electrical vehicles, a differential factor with regard to other systems that, by his cost, only are applicable to the vehicles of high range”, explains Antonio M. López, researcher of the Centre of Visió per Computer (CVC) of the UAB that leads the project.

To date, the systems of assistance to the driving or ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) have gone implanting exclusively in vehicles of luxury. However, the device developed by the team of the Dr. López, when being visual, has a cost of implantation and an energetic consumption very low, since it does not issue waves and does not generate, therefore, risk of bad operation by interferences.

One of the aims of the project is to put near at hand of all the drivers a device that diminishes enormously the risks of accident and, therefore, increases the hygiene and the confort in the driving.

In concrete, the ADAS visual posed in the project echo-Drivers allows to avoid atropellos by means of the monitoring of the space in front of the vehicle and of the level of attention of the driver. According to López, “20% of accidents generates them the distraction of the driver, and this is especially important in the electrical car, that is extremely silent, a fact that supposes a danger added especially for imprudent pedestrians”.

According to López, the first prototype will see the light in a term of three years, and the device could be in the market in some five years, depending on the speed of implantation that finally have the electrical car.

On the other hand, the team of researchers of the CVC is studying also the option to implement the ADAS visual in the mobile devices Smartphone, that every time have of better cameras and of a greater capacity of calculation. This possibility, more on a long-term basis, would allow to do arrive to more users the device of assistance to the driving.

Another of the projects that presented in the day, OnTheBus, has by aim facilitate the mobility of the invidentes. The tool offers a complete guidance in the city, from a point of origin to a point of destination, doing use of the public transport, helping to the user in each stage of the route, so much on foot as in bus.

The application also offers information to the user on the time of wait of the bus, of when has to request stopped to go down and of if a bus is adapted or no for people with mobility reduced. It treats , besides, of a multilingual tool and already has been testada in Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Helsinki, Valencia and Saragossa.