FUSION’s new approach to intelligent, adaptive network control was developed by Yunex Traffic in partnership with Transport for London (TfL) and will soon replace London’s legacy UTC-SCOOT® system.
FUSION adopts a network-wide view and digital twin approach to provide a comprehensive picture of traffic conditions and the predicted impact of actions on the entire network and Dr Hamilton presented results from the recent trial in the English county of Hampshire.
“Why Hampshire?” asked Hamilton, rhetorically. “Firstly it’s close to our headquarters, but after the success of the London trial in 2022 it made sense to listen to the feedback. The question was: ‘It works in London but would it work elsewhere?’. In order to re-evaluate SCOOT you have to compare apples with apples,” he added, meaning that in order to achieve true results a feasible correlation has to be made, in this instance between the incumbent urban traffic control system and the new ‘kid’ on the block.
The system uses sophisticated modelling and forecasting procedures to help improve traffic signal optimisation, improving on the SCOOT® philosophy of minimising vehicle delay and stops by optimising signalised junctions and pedestrian crossings based on all road users’ needs. In the Hampshire trial scenario FUSION was been implemented in various different environments featuring busy “multinode” intersections and signalled roundabouts after being tested against other adaptive control systems and coming out favourably.
Hamilton reported that journey time reductions of between 3-14% and had outperformed SCOOT on all aspects of the trial. With FUSION it would appear that Yunex Traffic has signalled its intent to herald the start of the new generation of network adaptive traffic signals.
The internal network model helps understanding not only the current traffic situation but also the effect signal time adjustments will have on the key performance indicators at other parts of the network.
