Overview
As the nation's first smart city environment powered by real-world infrastructure and next-generation connectivity, the Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners has partnered with technology innovator IPgallery to implement a smart city management system powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The City of Peachtree and IPgallery created a strategic holistic operational approach that considered safety, congestion, multimodal travel options, and time reliability improvements. Using best practices, such as active traffic management, traffic incident management, traffic events management, planning, multimodal coordination, and other TSMO strategies, Peachtree Corners positively influenced people's lives, and saves time and money. This process include collecting, preprocessing and converging data from various sources in real-time, and then generating intelligent actionable insights supporting decision-making. These capabilities increased the overall transportation system resiliency, and provided the City with the following benefits:
- Unified data fusion converging all data sources into a structured Data Lake.
- Real-time AI-based preprocessing of data generating intelligent actionable insights promptly.
- Robust optimization and management tools.
- Powerful real-time and history data analysis, predictions, pattern detection and anomaly detection tools (Figure 8).
- Configurable reporting mechanisms.
- Rapid roll-out of empowering smart transportation services including: traffic management multimodal transportation stations and availability, parking management, public transportation management, air quality condition, agency/stakeholder/resident notifications and communication, EV charging stations locations and availability, AV and tele-operated e-scooter operations and more.
In this case study you will learn:
- How the City of Peachtree Corners in Georgia partnered with technology innovator IPgallery to implement smart city management through and Artificial Intelligence (AI) processes.
- How multiple data sets were brought together to generate insights to make decisions on route management, parking management and public transportation.
- How the smart city systems provided better stakeholder and resident notification communications, convenient EV charging station location and tele-operated e-scooters for better commutes.
Background
The City of Peachtree Corners has a long history of innovative and leading-edge technology applications dating back to its founding. In the 1960s, businessman Paul Duke initiated the idea of a community in the Peachtree Corners area, envisioning a place where people (especially Georgia Tech engineers) could live, work, and play in the same area while removing the need for long commute times. The City is committed to delivering to residents and businesses the benefits of Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO). These benefits include improved economic vitality and a healthier environment, less wasted fuel, enhanced safety, more reliable traffic flow, and reduced congestion. This commitment and the smart city initiatives within the City of Peachtree Corners demonstrate that Paul Duke’s vision is still being implemented today.
As the nation's first smart city environment powered by real-world infrastructure and next-generation connectivity, the Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners has partnered with technology innovator IPgallery to implement a smart city management system powered by artificial intelligence (AI), along with other partners including T-Mobile 5G and Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) innovations, Qualcomm V2I and others. Using IPgallery's Intelligent Mobility Platform - Public Private Mobility Data Sharing, a single platform is used to provide a holistic view, monitoring, management and control of all IoT smart devices and connected vehicles, as well as advanced real-time preprocessing, data analysis, anomalies management and prediction tools. Through the Platform, advanced smart mobility services are available with cross-implications taken into account and data sharing among the entire ecosystem.
Currently, the City is underway with a pilot program, testing tele-operated e-scooters, which offers riders a unique last mile connectivity option. These e-scooters can be summoned by an app and remotely driven to the rider’s destination. This technology linked together with current train and bus schedules, could change the user experience in a substantial way. The City currently operates a 1.5 mile autonomous vehicle and smart city corridor, where the testing of these integrations could occur. The corridor currently serves as a location for start-ups and local technology companies to test autonomous vehicles, hardware and software.
IPgallery's AI-based Intelligent Mobility Platform - Public Private Mobility Data Sharing - was implemented by theCuriosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, a city owned and operated living laboratory designed specifically as a proving ground for technology that is available for mass deployments. The Lab consists of a 5G-enabled 3-mile autonomous vehicle test track and smart city infrastructure located within an existing 500-acre technology park where thousands of people and vehicles interact with the test track and smart city technology every day.
TSMO Planning, Strategies and Deployment
The City created a Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP). This plan includes an assessment of transportation project needs and recommendations across the City. The process included public involvement and public meetings to solicit input from every interested citizen or member of the business community. Residents attended the city's two public meetings to develop the Comprehensive Transportation Plan: the Project Kick Off meeting on August 11, 2016 and a Community meeting on Nov. 17, 2016. Residents were also invited to participate in an online survey. Nearly 100 residents attended the two city meetings and over 1,200 took part in the online CTP survey.
As part of the CTP, all applicable modes of transportation were examined to determine current and future needs, identify options, and prepare an implementation plan. The Plan consists of recommendations for transportation improvements, which include, but are not limited to, intersections, roadway widening, sidewalks, bike facilities, and autonomous vehicles (AV), to maintain and expand the City’s infrastructure while fostering a healthy, livable city. In considering the plan's recommendations, it is crucial to understand that the transportation investment life cycle can span decades, so the plan's findings and recommendations cover a similarly long horizon, starting now and lasting through the year 2040. In addition, the City began a comprehensive Community Charging Program including special Peachtree Corners only deals with Electric Vehicle (EV) charging providers. IPgallery has been working diligently to help cities across the world unlock the value of their data, visualize current and predictive statuses and make “smart” decisions, using its innovative AI data platform technology. Partnering with Peachtree Corners, one of the first true smart cities in the United States, provided an extraordinary opportunity to run real-time and streaming analytics on cutting edge technology and with new Intelligent Connectivity, including Edge Compute and a live 5G. At the Curiosity Lab, operation use cases involved IoT devices, such as smart traffic signals, cameras, charging stations, smart infrastructure, bus routes, connected and autonomous vehicles as well as teleoperated e-scooters. The key is to turn all data from multiple devices and sources into intelligent information in realtime and generate actionable insights in real-time, leading the way towards smarter communities.
With team members that are not only technically experienced to implement this project from an engineering and technology perspective; but also have diverse skill sets that include cost control and schedule management, IPgallery implemented a configurable solution that included:
1) A robust open interface layer for the seamless collection of traffic and transportation data from all the available dynamic and static data sources
2) Advanced preprocessing of data utilizing advanced AI algorithms
3) Holistic visualization of multiple layers of Intelligent information
4) Real-time based and predictive Actionable Insights
5) Smart day-to-day operations, and during events and situations management tools
6) Smooth sharing of transportation related intelligent information among the ecosystem, and with the different agencies and residents
Communications Planning and Execution
Regular re-occurring meetings that foster communication among team members are key to project success. The City of Peachtree Corners, in coordination with Curiosity Lab, and IPgallery, will hold regular status meetings to encourage collaboration across the different facets of the project and with various stakeholders. Following TSMO and project development best practices, initially IPgallery and the Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners worked closely to:
- Define the roles and responsibilities of the City and IPgallery teams
- Co-define project goals to align project development with Department objectives - Scope preliminary technical requirements
- Complete Scope of Work document
- Co-define deliverables, deadlines, milestones and metrics
- Agree on frequency and format of communications
A Scope of Work template was developed to describe the objectives, goals, and approaches of the City, as well as key tasks, timelines, roles, and responsibilities, and what the user tools would look like. As a final step, the team had to determine a set of norms for their working relationships, including expectations regarding communication and regular software updates. Via IPgallery's advanced robust AI Intelligent Mobility Platform, Public Private Mobility Data Sharing, both the economic and technical challenges of the City transportation system were addressed.
The implementation included:
1) An interactive Command & Control main operations dashboard
2) Smart mobility and multimodal transportation services
3) Optimization and Management Tools
4) Real-time and historical analysis, predictions, pattern and anomaly detecting tools
5) Reporting mechanisms
6) Digital twins
7) Communication tools for data sharing between the various agencies and residents
Outcome, Benefit and Learnings
The City and IPgallery created a strategic holistic operational approach that considered safety, congestion, multimodal travel options, and time reliability improvements. Using best practices, such as active traffic management, traffic incident management, traffic events management, planning, multimodal coordination, and other TSMO strategies, Peachtree Corners positively influences people's lives, and saves time and money.
The challenges addressed by this process include collecting, preprocessing and converging data from various sources in real-time, and then generating intelligent actionable insights supporting knowledge management and decision-making. These capabilities increase the overall transportation system resiliency, and provide the City with the following benefits:
- Unified data fusion converging all data sources into a structured Data Lake.
- Real-time AI-based preprocessing of data generating intelligent actionable insights promptly.
- Robust optimization and management tools.
- Powerful real-time and history data analysis, predictions, pattern detection and anomaly detection tools (Figure 8).
- Configurable reporting mechanisms.
- Rapid roll-out of empowering smart transportation services including: traffic management multimodal transportation stations and availability, parking management, public transportation management, air quality condition, agency/stakeholder/resident notifications and communication, EV charging stations locations and availability, AV and tele-operated e-scooter operations and more.
Route planning efforts are focused on encouraging ridership, creating an “experience” such that the IMP encourages the optimal use of public and private transit and mobility options. The impact to traffic congestion and quality of life is significantly improved for all residents. The creation of this partnership has a positive, long-lasting impact on the community, supporting all future Smart City developments.
Various new applications can be easily built on top of the Platform. With IPgallery's holistic approach, backed by robust technologies, PPPs can be enabled and empowered. By leveraging IPgallery IMP, government agencies can improve effectiveness and efficiency, strengthen the competitive edge of the urban ecosystem, drive innovative knowledge management, predict future needs, reduce costs and realize futuristic urban mobility. The City’s IMP-based transportation system meets sustainable transportation goals by reducing carbon footprint and improving air quality, enabling alternative energy sources through management for air quality and EV charging, improving wellbeing by reducing congestion, and encouraging transportation accessibility, inclusivity and equality.