Virtuocity: city simulation and co-design
The world’s cities are growing at an unprecedented rate, resulting in increasingly complex “grand challenges” for designers, planners and government if our urban centres are to be economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. In the face of such complexity, new tools are required to plan and run our cities.
A collaborative venture between global design and planning consultancy, Arup, and researchers at the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) has been the catalyst for establishing Virtuocity – the University’s new Centre for City Simulation, which provides advanced capability to address these challenges.
We can create any kind of infrastructure, whether it's Leeds or New York, and look at how different kinds of people interact with it.
—Professor Natasha Merat
Read the case study Watch the YouTube video summaryImpact
- Transport safety: informs the design of smart motorways and driver safety systems, contributing to safer transport infrastructures
- Advancements in Autonomous Vehicle Development: plays a pivotal role in simulating and evaluating highly automated driving systems
- Comprehensive multi-modal research: through "Distributed Simulation", Virtuocity connects multiple simulation laboratories, allowing for complex studies involving various transportation modes and interactions among different road users
- Global collaboration and innovation: researchers support policy via simulation and virtual prototyping, addressing future challenges in urban mobility and city dynamics
Key information
- Major funders: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA), Department for Transport, European Commission, Innovate UK, Turing Institute
- Partners and collaborators: BMW, Bosch, Nissan, Hitachi, aimsun, Atkins, Highways England, Catapult
- Disciplines: Transport, environment
- Investigators: Professor Richard Romano, Professor Natasha Merat.
Virtuocity is a unique programme for city simulation and co-design which provides a world-leading technical platform and leverages research and innovation expertise from across the University.
"Virtuocity builds on our international reputation in the field of simulation," said Professor Richard Romano, who led the project.
"It harnesses research talent from across a wide range of disciplines with industry leaders to create a fully immersive, virtual environment in which the design of future cities can be tried and tested."
Creating a virtual test environment enables scenarios to be built and evaluated in a fast, controlled and affordable way, and avoids the risks associated with implementing the wrong decisions in a real-world environment.
Arup’s Associate Director Tim Griggs said: "Virtuocity reinforces the collaboration between us through the pooling of resources, ideas, clients and partners to create opportunities that otherwise would not be achievable."
Arup’s senior transport modeller, Anna Vickers, worked alongside researchers at the ITS to help develop collaborative projects with Arup. These range from a focus on the design of smart cities, through to transport simulation and the impact of autonomous vehicles. She said: "The secondment has given Arup the opportunity to see how our different skills can be harnessed in a complementary way."
Widening the scope of Virtuocity
IAA money enabled Arup to second a senior city modeller, Simon Mabey, to help widen the scope of Virtuocity. He said: "3D city modelling and simulation allows us to build accurate digital representations of an entire city, granting greater precision to project planning. Far more than buildings, this technology also reflects the realities of that environment."
Arup understands that shaping a sustainable future – particularly in the urban environment – is one of the greatest challenges in the 21st century. "As a company, we are rising to the challenge by investing in research and innovation," says Anna. "But we also recognise that we can often make a bigger and better impact when we collaborate with like-minded partners – which is why we are working closely with the University of Leeds on the Virtuocity initiative."
As a result of the IAA funding, the University has strengthened the link between its own research expertise and Arup’s R&D capability. This has already resulted in the building of an intelligent modelling tool incorporating Arup technologies. In addition, Arup has provided guidance on the procurement and installation of state-of-the-art Virtual Reality equipment, and loading it with Arup’s own 3D city models.
"Fast-tracking the translation of existing high-definition 3D city models into our driving simulator has been an important output from the project," says Virtuocity’s Business Development Manager Dr Erik Thomasson. "It helps create a more immersive simulation experience and, therefore, a more marketable research facility for driving simulation projects."
But the strength of Virtuocity is much more than its high-tech facilities; "Virtuocity’s strength is in collaboration. It brings industry experts and public sector decision makers into powerful partnerships with cutting-edge researchers to transform the way we design and build urban environments in ways that are much more sustainable," says Professor Romano. "This combined experience will support policy makers to develop sustainable solutions to some of the most significant social, economic and technical challenges of our time."
Driving simulation
An aerospace engineer by training, Professor Romano came to Leeds from the United States, where he was a leading researcher in the field of driving simulation, before establishing his own business, Realtime Technologies, which develops advanced, intuitive simulation and real-time tools to drastically reduce the time it takes to deliver interactive simulation, test and acquisition systems.
"Here at Virtuocity we have Europe’s most advanced driving simulator," says Professor Natasha Merat, who leads the Human Factors and Safety Group, which is investigating road users’ interactions with new and current transport systems and technologies in a bid to advance transport safety. “We also have a pedestrian simulator – funded in part through the IAA in collaboration with Arup – and have recently installed one of the world’s most advanced truck driving simulators. This makes our simulation and research facilities among the most sophisticated and immersive in the world."
"This fully immersive approach is what Virtuocity is all about," says Dr Thomasson, who cites research currently underway with Highways England as another example of the power of simulation. “They want to know what signage has the most effect on driver behaviour, to enhance the safety not only of their own staff working in a live traffic environment, but also the safety of drivers and other road users."
Arup and Virtuocity are also leading the way in showing how immersive simulation technologies can shorten design time and reduce cost to industry, developers and the public sector.
"It is already happening in the motor industry,” says Professor Romano. As part of a £10 million EPSRC-funded collaboration with Jaguar Landrover, he and his colleague, Dr Gustav Markkula, a former driver-modelling specialist with Volvo Group Trucks, are using simulation technologies to give engineers a more realistic perception of what a design might achieve.
"Jaguar Land Rover understands that by working with us they can develop tools that will deliver complex new vehicle programmes more quickly. It will also help save costs in product development by reducing the reliance on physical prototypes and have environmental benefits by limiting the number of prototypes that need to be driven and tested in the real world," said Professor Romano.
Innovative partnerships
Virtuocity has the ambition to help more than just industry. "We are already in discussions with a number of city councils – including senior officers and elected members here in Leeds – to see how we can help them in the design, planning and construction of major city developments. In Leeds, for instance, we have the ability to simulate what a traffic-free City Square might look, feel and sound like to pedestrians: and simulate how the transition could be effected with the minimum of disruption," Dr Thomasson said.
Since the IAA funding, the network of relationships with Arup’s city simulation teams has extended out from the Leeds office, to now include Manchester, Sheffield and London, with whom a number of new opportunities are being developed.
Further collaborative work with Arup includes hosting of the Arup 3D city model in the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics and joint work with Transport for the North on the wider social benefits of transport investments.
Another collaborative venture with Arup is helping Transport for London reduce the number of fatalities and injuries to cyclists and pedestrians caused by buses and trucks turning left at junctions. This work, which currently involves University of Leeds psychologists, could soon be exploiting the recently installed truck simulator.
Referring to the latest IAA project, Arup’s Tim Griggs said: "The six-month collaboration between our two organisations has already yielded a number of ideas and opportunities that support both Arup’s business goals and the University’s research objectives." In addition, he believes the collaboration will also enable Arup to identify students with the skills and experience that may be attractive to the company in terms of future recruitment or research projects.
"We hope that this will be the latest in a series of innovative partnerships between our two organisations through which we can generate value and help shape a better world," he said.
Keywords: driving simulation, human behaviour, artificial intelligence, transportation, transport research, technology, vehicles
This project was sponsored by the UKRI Impact Acceleration Account.