Demand Forecasting Models for Intelligent Community Vehicle Systems

In March 2002, Honda ICVS Pte Ltd launched a new ICVS (Intelligent Community Vehicle System) in Singapore (It was later renamed Honda Diracc in June 2003). This new approach to community transportation allows members to share a common pool of vehicles. Multiple ports or specialised parking lots are located in Singapore’s CBD (Central Business District). Honda Civic Hybrid vehicles are available for members to use as transportation in and around the area. No reservations are required and cars can be rented from and returned to any of several ports.  A project sum of S$34K has been awarded by Honda Diracc to NUS to develop trip forecasting models for such operations. The research team working on this project comprises of:

A/Prof. Cheu Ruey Long (Civil Engineering)
A/Prof. Xu Jianxin (Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dr. Lee Der Horng (Civil Engineering)
Dr. Meng Qiang (Civil Engineering)
Miss Alvina Kek (Research Engineer, Civil Engineering)

The research team is developing several models (such as neural networks and time series) to predict trips originated and ended at each port.  The models will allow Honda Diracc’s operating system to predict vehicle imbalances between the port more accurately, and thus enable it relocate vehicles to meet customer demands. 
 

Multi-Objective Route Planning for Military Vehicles

Military personnel, equipment and supplies need to be transported from their bases to field exercise locations, and more frequently, between different military facilities in day-to-day operations.  Such transportation will inevitably make use of public roads and facilities.  The presence of military equipment and uniformed officers on public road is obvious, and their maneuver would naturally draw public and media attention.  Military vehicles are heavier and larger in dimension compared to vehicles designed for and used by civilians.  Therefore, military vehicles also tend to be more difficult to maneuver on public road, especially in negotiating tight corners and sharp curves.  Drivers of these vehicles also have lesser degree of visibility of the surrounding road and traffic environment.  Some of the drivers also have relatively lesser driving experience.  Therefore, the safety aspects of driving of military vehicles are different from the factors that are normally considered in safety and accident analysis of other types of vehicles.  Currently, algorithms for routing of vehicles are either based purely on distance, travel time, or connectivity.  This research attempts to address the need of routing vehicles with a different requirement (e.g., safety and ease of maneuver).  The objective of this research is to develop a prototype GIS-based model to assist in the routing of military vehicles between a pair of origin and destination that will minimize a pre-defined composite index reflecting the multiple objectives of reducing accident risks, exposure to other vehicles, improving ease of maneuver and other criteria while meeting operational constraints.  The research team of this project consists of

A/Prof. Cheu Ruey Long (Civil Engineering)
Dr. Lee Der Horng (Civil Engineering)
Dr. Meng Qiang (Civil Engineering)
Mr. Zhang Lei (Research Engineer, The Logistics Institute-Asia Pacific)

This project is part of the JAGUAR Project arising from the MOU signed between Ministry of Defence, Singapore and The Logistics Institute-Asia Pacific.

Other Funded Research Projects

• Traffic Monitoring Systems for Tactical Logistics Planning
• Modeling Land-Use and Transportation Interaction
• An Advanced Transportation Management and Information System
• Audio Visual Speech Recognition for Car Navigation and Assistance
• An Intelligent Road Maintenance Scheduling and Monitoring System
• Real-Time Multi-Target Vehicle Tracking