Nicta-Rta Partnership for Traffic Control Innovation

NICTA and the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales (RTA) have formed a partnership to increase the effectiveness of existing traffic and transport infrastructure using smart technology. NICTA is an Australian research institute in the ICT sector with expertise which includes constraint programming, machine learning and optimization. RTA is the owner, developer and an operator of SCATS, the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System, now used in over 130 cities around the world. The aim of the partnership is to research and develop new generation traffic control systems to tackle congestion that is estimated to cost Australia alone about $10 billion annually. This paper outlines the technical, methodological and collaborative nature of the relationship between NICTA and RTA and shows how the parties complement each others experience and expertise. The research benefits from two live RTA contributed test-beds; a traffic signal controlled intersection in Sydney, and a highway junction roundabout in the Illawarra region to the south of Sydney. We also discuss the design of advanced real-time traffic control systems using video sensors, traffic models and optimization techniques for flexible signal group control.