Quartier mobility refers to the mobility of people and goods in a neighborhood in public space with distances less than 3 km. A quartier can be a residential district, a shopping street, a pedestrian area, a park, a school or university campus, or a corporate home. Road users are usually pedestrians or cyclists and scooter riders, but also disabled or limited pedestrians with walkers or with a blind stick, and slow vehicles for transporting people and goods.
Due to the different needs of road users, conflicts arise as to their various requirements. The problem becomes more difficult by the increasing population density in urban areas as well as aspects of sustainability, security, environmental protection and special needs. Due to different speeds, such as pedestrians and cyclists or different space requirements of construction sites and parcel services, issues arise for equitable distribution and optimization.
The TIQ project wants to actively shape mobile change. The aim is to find ways of improving the quality of life and the mobility needs of all road users in a quartier. Methods of modern computer science and engineering should contribute to this.
One part of the project will be to develop a sensor setup which will help to gather meta information of all movement in the area: Pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, electro scooters, postal serivce, caretaker and so on. Special emphasis is placed on sensor construction based on Privacy By Design principle, which does not allow conclusions to be drawn on individuals.
Sensor data is then to be analysed with data science methods, in particular machine learning methods. Attention is directed towards analysis and prediction of activity, visualisation of the data e.g. for urban planning purposes, as well as integration of data of other sources like weather and air pollution data. Interaction with road users is possible with street lighting, mobile phones, or blind sticks.
A second part of the project includes the development of vehicles and types of mobility that enable safe operation within a pedestrian zone. To mention here is the problem of last mile in logistics.
In particular research is done in sensory environment detection on an autonomous outdoor robot inside a pedestrian zone. In addition autonomous micro mobility vehicles will be constructed as technological studies to assist urban planners. We are striving towards urban mobility which is safe, available and climate-friendly.