A team led by the head of the Urban Transport Systems Laboratory (LUTS) at the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Professor Professor Nikolas Geroliminis, is using swarms of drones to measure traffic with unprecedented precision. Video images are transformed into algorithms and then analyse the data. "Our goal is not to monitor traffic, but to find the causes of congestion and provide solutions based on facts," said post-doctoral researcher Manos Barmpounakis in a statement.
LUTS tested its multidisciplinary method in 2018 and 2019 and last summer used it to monitor and evaluate parking areas of the port of Pully in the canton of Vaud. In mid-May 2022, a new experiment was conducted in Nairobi, which is the fourth most congested city in the world. The team also had to take into account cultural aspects such as matatus, the collective minibuses that “drop off and pick up passengers according to demand in an indescribable road chaos”. Traditional approaches are not directly applicable in this context, according to the statement.
The laboratory has received a grant from the innovation agency Innosuisse to conduct further experiments. It will also help to push their technology, known as CityDronics, towards a marketable solution by a Swiss-based start-up that will be the first to integrate drones with urban mobility. With multi-sensors, the drones can evaluate CO2 emissions and noise. Several cities have already expressed an interest in the solution.
