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Traffic navigation means the route guidance of a traffic participant from one place to another. For individual road navigation, this comprises suggestions for routes the individual driver should follow asit is done by the state-of-the-art car navigation systems. For public transportation systems, this comprises passenger information systems which are typically available via internet and mobile phone, sometimes also at stop points.

At FH Wedel, we are working in both application domains. The focus is on software problems, but also technical and economical aspects are considered. The techniques investigated are both, algorithmic methods for computing an objective optimum, as well as methods of artificial intelligence for a better consideration of individual needs.

Dynamic traffic navigation does not only consider the current location of the user (in road navigation, this is already state-of-the-art), but considers also unpredictable changes in the network, even during the ride. In individual road traffic, changes are mainly due to current traffic conditions caused by congestions, accidents, etc. In public transportation, changes are mainly due to deviations from the timetable (in most cases: delays).

Dynamic traffic navigation has already basically been considered in modern navigation systems. However, there are several improvement strategies in order to fulfil practical needs which are in the focus of research activities at FH Wedel:

Congestion is already considered in navigation systems (e.g. via TMC messages), but only in a very crude way: Reliability and accuracy are not yet enough suitable for practice. Problems arise from the arbitrariness of messages considered and from the accuracy of congestion information. State-of-the-art navigation devices use maps with preprocessed information for the sake of fast route computation. But this makes it difficult to consider latest dynamic information. This reflects the trade-off problem between computational speed and adaptability of the application which is typical for software systems.

In public transportation, dynamic information is already provided at certain stop area displays, but so far this has not been considered by navigation systems. This is due to the lack of interfaces between traffic control and traffic information and to the open problem which individual passenger should get the respective information.

For both application domains, there are cooperations with Hamburg industrial partners via projects and graduation theses. Furthermore, there has been some internal work which goes much beyond the state-of-practice. An aproach which is primarily investigated at FH Wedel is pheromone-based control (so-called ant algorithms).

Besides these problems which have to be solved with priority, Prof. Iwanowski has also done some work considering a goal beyond: Improved traffic coordination. In road traffic, an intelligent coordination between the different interests of the individual drivers could result in a better utilization of the roads available. In public transportation, this could result in a dynamic schedule synchronization which considers the individual goals of the passengers concerned.

The general principle carryied by all of the proposed approaches is: Intelligent and flexible software instead of costly and nonflexible hardware!

• Ant simulator: This demonstrates the flexible adaptability to changed traffic situations obtained by a pheromone based approach. You may test this yourself with a graphical simulation software.
• AntScout: This is a prototype for the use of ant algorithms in real road maps. The software works with the wiki map OpenStreetMap and is published under the Apache open source license.

Alexander Bertram: Ant Scout - Dynamic Routing on Open Street Map (in German),
  master thesis, WS 2012/13 (Download, 4,6 MB)
  1. prize in the Univention graduation award presented at the Berlin Linux Day 2013

Wilm Josias Polchau: Design and Integration of Pedestrian Routing in the Passenger Information System GEOFOX (in German),
  bachelor thesis, commissioning enterprise: HBT GmbH (Hamburg), WS 2010/2011
  WHB award for the best bachelor thesis in computer science in WS 2010/2011

Thorsten Dahmke: Statistical Analysis of Queries to a Passenger Travel Information System (in German), SS 2010
   master thesis, in cooperation with enterprise HBT (Hamburg) 

Sebastian Hammes: Study Concept for a Personalised Travel Companion on a Smartphone (in German),
  diploma thesis, commisioning enterprise: eos-uptrade (Hamburg), SS 2010

Henning Reimer: Geofox Mobile - Developing an Interface for Mobile Devices and Implementation of an Android Client (in German),
   bachelor thesis, commissioning enterprise: HBT GmbH (Hamburg), SS 2010

Silvio Kaviedes Hanninger: "Catch the FOX": A Pursuit Game in the Hamburg Traffic System (in German),
  diploma thesis, commisioning enterprise: Hamburger Berater Team GmbH (Hamburg), WS 2008/2009
  3rd prize of the Max Brauer foundation of Hamburg Hochbahn AG

Benedikt Westphal: Real-Time Input System for GEOFOX (in German),
  bachelor thesis, commissioning enterprise: Hamburger Berater Team GmbH (Hamburg), WS 2008/2009

Andre Keller: Efficient Pathfinding in Dynamic Game Environments (in German),
  diploma thesis, commissioning enterprise: Blue Byte GmbH (Düsseldorf), SS 2008

Bjarne Großmann: Arena - A Contest Environment for Navigation Algorithms (in German),
  bachelor thesis, commissioning enterprise: Innovative Systems (Hamburg), WS 2007/2008
  WHB award for the best graduation thesis in media computer science in WS 2007/2008

Kristof Kostencki: Prognosis of Ride Demands for a Taxicab Enterprise due to Historic Data (in German)
  diploma thesis, commissioning enterprise: BSL Management Consultants GmbH (Hamburg), WS 2007/2008

Sven Reinck: Overlap-free Presentation of Labels in Dynamically Generated Maps (in German),
   master thesis, in cooperation with Innovative Systems GmbH (Hamburg), SS 2007

Jörg Meister: Simulation of crowd dynamics with special focus on building evacuations (in English),
   master thesis, SS 2007 (information site including download of thesis)
   WHB award for the best master thesis in computer science in SS 2007

Daniel Stonies: Analysis and Optimization of a Passenger Information System (in German)
   diploma thesis, commissioning enterprise: Hamburger Berater Team GmbH (Hamburg), SS 2007

Michael Suthe: Mobile Use of Pheromone Tables in Dynamic Road Navigation (in German),
   master thesis, SS 2007 (Download, 1,6 MB)

David Goetze: Artificial Intelligence in Games for Mobile Devices (in German)
    diploma thesis, commissioning enterprise: Fishlabs Entertainment GmbH (Hamburg), SS 2006
    WHB award for the best diploma thesis in media computer science in SS 2006 

Heiko Schmidt-Evers: Implementation and Test of System Components for the Incremental Analysis of Dialog Situations in Vehicles (in German)
    diploma thesis, commissioning enterprise: DaimlerChrysler AG (Berlin), SS 2006
    MLP award for a special study performance in SS 2006 

Sven Reinck: Assessment of Several Algorithms for the Search of Alternative Routes in Road Navigation Systems (in German)
    diploma thesis, commissioning enterprise: Innovative Systems (Hamburg), WS 2005/2006
    MLP award for a special study performance in WS 2005/2006

Michael Schiefenhövel: Personalized Dynamic Passenger Information (in German),
    master thesis, WS 2005/2006 (Download, 1,5 MB)
    3rd prize of the Max Brauer foundation of Hamburg Hochbahn AG

Thomas Walther: Dynamic Road Navigation Based on Ant Colonies (in German),
    master thesis, WS 2005/2006 (Download, 1,6 MB)