FLOW: Now public transport runs through digital Veberöd!
One way to plan for future traffic flows can be to simulate in a digital model. For some years now, Veberöd has had a digital twin, that is, a 3D model of the village in which pieces of reality are reflected. The model already contains metrics from various deployed sensors, and several of them have to do with traffic. Now there are also moving objects in the model. When the real buses of the public transport are on their way through the village, they also run in the digital model at the same time.
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By Jan Malmgren and his Smart Villages Veberöd has become a testing ground where we look at what connected digital technology can do for a smaller society. There are sensors that measure the water quality in the village stream, sensors that warn if there is too little water in the cows' water hoof, and smart street lighting is tested at a pedestrian crossing. The traffic environment in Veberöd is also investigated in several projects. Smart villages are part of Future by Lund's FLOW project, where, for example, they test how radar can be used to continuously report on the speed of vehicles. Another example is the international collaboration with Boston University and RedHat, which uses Veberöd as a place to simulate traffic and then scale up the trials in places with denser traffic.
- It is interesting that we can now incorporate moving objects into the 3D model created during more of our projects, says Anders Trana, project manager, FLOW. In the past, we have had real-time measurements into the model, but then only from fixed sensors. The more connections we get in the model, the greater the possibilities for combinations with other traffic measurements.
The project of visualizing public transport buses in 3D model makes Smart Villages with partners such as Sensative, Future City Lund, The power ring and HeroSight.
- By being able to visualize in 3D models, it becomes much clearer and easier to understand how a society like Veberöd works, says Jan Malmgren. The more values that we can take into the model, the better basis we have for a simulation.
Lundabolaget Sensative has created the IoT platform Yggio, which is used in the various projects. This is what Mats Pettersson, CEO of Sensative at veberod.nu, says:
- Lilla Veberöd is now digitising the village in a way that the big cities so far only dream of. With Yggio, Sensative's intelligent data exchange for smart cities and real estate, the village gains ownership of both data and new digital applications, bringing a whole new level of innovation for the village and its residents. That it is generating interest from the United States is not surprising!
- Here we have a brilliant example of the combination of digital twin and real-time data, says Rickard Stenström, Head of Kraftringen Stadsnät. The potential is fantastic and what we are now seeing in Veberöd will soon be scaled up to larger and wider applications. All this is made possible by a robust digital infrastructure but also by brilliant and committed residents (and partners) of Veberöd.”
The 3D model has a much wider scope of application than traffic simulation alone. Already now it can be used to, for example, bring buildings at the planning stage to life.
- The next step could be to use the 3D model as a hub for communication, continues Jan Malmgren. It could contain important local information such as where there are open shops, where a dog is, where there are upcoming events or where there are roadworks. And if municipalities and citizens could communicate through the 3D model, it could create new conditions for creating a better and more sustainable society together in many areas.
If you want to see a demo version of the buses in the 3D model, you can try it by going to the post on veberod.nu and following the link. Please note that it is a work in development. It takes a while for the map to load. The map shows a list of buses in Skåne that will pass through Veberöd. A blue symbol is activated when a bus comes to the village. Click on that symbol and you will see how the bus drives through the village.
