Simulation and visualization of traffic operations in Augmented Reality for improved planning and design of road construction projects

This paper describes research that investigated the application of 3D Augmented Reality (AR) for animating traffic simulation models in real time to support the planning and design of road construction projects. Traditional 3D visualization applications use Virtual Reality (VR) environments to visualize traffic simulations. The significant amount of time and human resources required to collect and incorporate statistical data about existing traffic volume and pattern can be a major drawback to the application of VR in studying the possible effect of traffic on planned construction. At the same time, the final visual output is often unconvincing as phenomenon such as unpredictable motion of pedestrians and incoming vehicles cannot be effectively represented in a VR animation. In this research, a new AR-based approach to create real time interactive traffic animations is introduced. This approach takes advantage of wireless communication techniques to facilitate continuous positional and orientation data transfer between moving vehicles and an AR animation.

1 INTRODUCTION

The transportation network is of critical importance for supporting the mobility and accessibility needs of the nation as well as ensuring its economic vitality. The importance of reliable and effective transportation systems as essential means to quick response in case of emergencies to ensure safe, continuous movement of people and goods as well as support response and recovery operations can not be overemphasized (Sisiopiku 2007). In order to maximize road network efficiency, improve traffic conditions for the traveling public, and overcome problems such as increasing levels of traffic volumes in both normal and emergency situations, transportation authorities continuously make changes to the existing traffic patterns of streets and roads by performing line closures, adding provision of bus lanes and High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, lane reversals, and implementing several vehicle turn rules. During a typical road construction project, intersection designs and traffic signalizations may be temporarily or permanently changed by city planning officials in order to optimize the flow of traffic and minimize time lost in traffic discharge (Ceylan and Bell 2004). In complex and dense urban areas with relatively higher traffic flow, the negative effects from an inefficient traffic pattern design change are more pronounced which makes the optimization and design process even more critical and complicated (Mirchandani and Head 2001). The large scale impacts of such changes on traffic pattern, if not studied well beforehand, can add up to the existing problems and even make the situation worse.