AI traffic management system expands into China with granting of new patent
An innovative traffic management system, which uses artificial intelligence to optimise urban traffic flow, has expanded into more towns and cities, as well as being granted a patent for use in China.
The technology was developed by Simplifai Systems in collaboration with a team of leading experts in AI and transport, including the University of Huddersfield’s Professor Mauro Vallati and his AI4UTMC research team.
It is designed to solve traffic control issues with the technology making use of available information on congestion, traffic lights, bus movements, incidents and air quality to generate real-time strategies that can transform traffic flow.
The AI-powered system has already been very successfully trialled in Hull and Kirklees and is currently in use commercially in Blackpool and Glasgow, with Sheffield soon to come on board. It can be used not only to optimise driving at peak hours, but also to ease congestion during big local events, such as music concerts or significant sporting matches.
Professor Vallati, who is Director of the University’s Centre for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (CAIS), and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, commented: “Our collaboration with Simplifai clearly demonstrates how research at the University can deliver tangible impact. Not only driving economic growth through new technologies and markets, but also improving the quality of life of people in urban environments. The granting of the patent opens the door to applying our research in entirely new contexts and at a truly global scale.”
The AI4UTMC research team includes Saumya Bhatnagar-Knox, Dr Sandra Castellanos-Paez, Dr Francesco Percassi, and Dr Megan Robinson.
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They have been working with Simplifai, based at the University’s 3M Buckley Innovation Centre alongside the campus, which was created through a collaboration between the University’s research centre, which focuses on developing intelligent machines capable of independent decision-making and task execution, CAIS.
The China patent, which follows on from the UK patent being granted in 2024, and a pending US patent application, is expected to bring significant international expansion in one of the world’s largest markets for Simplifai’s innovative AI-based approach to intelligent transport management.
Simplifai specialises in creating intelligent systems that solve complex, real-world problems with a particular focus on sustainable transport and infrastructure efficiency.
Lee McCluskey, Research Lead at Simplifai, and a former Professor at the University of Huddersfield, commented: "A major part of its innovation is to improve traffic flows by optimising existing signal plans in order to achieve a transport manager's directives, within a particular region and time window. All the AI's operational software technology was built by Simplifai and the University and based on the patent."
Founder Keith McCabe commented: “The granting of the patent in China gives international recognition of the breakthrough made by the team based in the North of England. The breakthrough would not have been possible without the close collaboration between a leading transport AI company and a University that is world-leading in this area of AI.”