Research & Scientific Staff: M. Morfoulaki, E. Mitsakis, M. Vasilantonakis, A. Halatsis, G. Mirovali, N. Kotoula, K. Chrysostomou, E. Chrysohoou, J. Salanova, I. Stamos, P. Iordanopoulos, P. Tzenos, M. Chatziathanasiou, E. Xenou, A. Theodosiou, A. Kortsari .

The activities of Sector B include all aspects of sustainable mobility research, with emphasis on land transport networks and their traffic. In particular, it is involved with issues regarding the planning, design, management, and operation of land transport systems from the point of their infrastructures, networks, traffic and transport operation. As regards the overall mobility research, Sector B examines all surface transportation systems (road, railway and maritime transport) as well as air transport.

Indicatively, it is concerned with the issues of:

• Application of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in the areas of responsibility of the Sector,
• Sustainable mobility and sustainable mobility plans (Sustainable Mobility management and planning);
• Development and promotion of the transportation planning process at national and regional level;
• Demand forecasting and demand management (for all modes);
• Capacity and availability assessment of transport infrastructures to satisfy this demand - Design of transport network infrastructures;
• Algorithms development for the simulation or mathematical representation of transport operations;
• Collection, maintenance, and management of traffic and other data in road, rail, maritime, and air transport; 
• Development and maintenance of the Greek transport observatory: HIT PORTAL,
• Intelligent, intermodal freight transport and logistics by use of all modes: road, rail, maritime, air,  
• Organizational and operational issues of land transportation systems,
• Transport Policy formulation covering all areas and modes of transport,
• Evaluation of the operation of the transport system, as a whole as well as subsystems, via appropriate indicators (KPIs).

Responsible: M. Morfoulaki

The Laboratory is involved in research, concerning demand management, development of sustainable mobility systems and of urban mobility plans. It also handles special mobility issues such as:

• Mobility for tourism (including tourism by cruise ships),
• School transport,
• Road safety (from the point of accident data analysis, black spot analysis, and other aspects relevant to the scope of Sector B),
• Technologies and electronic services development for mobility systems in the above areas.

 In addition, Laboratory B1 deals with the planning, operation, and management of public transport systems with emphasis on optimization of their performance and their integration with other modes of transport.

 In addition, methods and the indicators for evaluating the quality of transport services in urban and suburban areas for passengers and freight transport (by use of KPIs).

 Within the urban mobility plans and urban mobility issues, this Laboratory covers both passenger and freight transport issues, and as regards these issues it cooperates with laboratory B4.

 Finally, the laboratory B1 deals with the study and formulation of policies and instruments for developing "sustainable mobility" in urban and suburban areas and the ways of "managing" this mobility (sustainable mobility management) by studying, developing & implementing innovative governance schemes, business models and technologies. On these issues, it is cooperating with Sector C, and specifically with the Laboratory C4.

Responsible: J. Salanova

Τhe Laboratory develops technologies and techniques for collecting, managing and certifying data from multiple sources. It also develops algorithms for specific transportation problems such as managing fleets and providing routing services.

The Laboratory performs research on simulation and optimization using specialized software packages focusing on the application of intelligent transport systems for the management of transport demand and transport infrastructure. The analysis of the transport networks and the development of computing application platforms for designing and managing transport networks are also part of this Laboratory. These are integrated into the HIT PORTAL a state-of-the-art platform for data and software related to the Transport sector in Greece developed by the Hellenic Institute of Transport. The collection, classification and analysis of transport data are produced either by the Institute’s research infrastructure or provided by external bodies active in the field of Transport in Greece, including crowd sourcing. In this context, the Laboratory B2 has the responsibility for operating, maintaining & further developing the HIT PORTAL as a digital content aggregator, big data management service and open data provider.

The Laboratory has the scientific responsibility for the development and maintenance of the HIT PORTAL. In this respect, the Lab has the responsibility of:

• Securing the operation, maintenance & further development of the HIT PORTAL operation as content aggregator in the transport sector.
•  Standardization of transport data models, data and services interface to external databases and systems in accordance with international standards and cutting-edge technologies.
• Specialized applications in the field of transport, development of digital geographic backgrounds of the country's transport network in urban and suburban environments.
• Use of innovative transportation models and algorithms (e.g. simulation models of large-scale transportation networks, dynamic traffic assignment algorithms).
• Collection, storage, maintenance and processing of raw data. Calculation of dynamic indicators for traffic and transportation in Greece. Data and indicators consolidation into an integrated basis.
• Creation of an electronic library with all the publishable material from HIT’s research projects.
• Use of transportation tools for editing and enriching data for the benefit of research projects.
• Installation and / or development of innovative systems based on advanced technologies (to create "innovation incubator").
• Implementation of a test bed platform for new technologies, innovative transportation models and algorithms and prototype for applications arising from research.
• Creation of a web portal for information and diffusion of research results, as well as an interface with the Transport sector research laboratories worldwide.
• Gradual implementation of a Greek Transport Observatory based on specific qualitative or efficiency indicators.

Finally, the Laboratory has the responsibility of proposing to the management of sector B and of the Institute, the possible commercial exploitation of the HIT PORTAL as related to the provision of third party services and to third parties as well as its future expansion into a cloud-based service.

Laboratory B3:  Infrastructure and traffic management in land transport networks

Responsible: E. Mitsakis

 

The Laboratory focuses on modeling and optimization of transportation systems networks and traffic flow. It develops interfaces for the integration of Intelligent Transport Systems and related processes in the field of traffic management of surface transport systems (including integration of related managing entities and stakeholders). More specifically, in the field of traffic management of surface transport systems, the Laboratory B3 is involved with:

• Application of information and communication technologies (ICT) and of Intelligent Transport Systems – ITS in infrastructure and traffic management;
• Cooperative Systems in the fields of relevance to the Labs work;
• Transport systems modeling and demand forecasting models;
• Process modeling;
• Analysis, certification and processing of traffic and travel data (in cooperation with Lab B2);
• Traffic management and traffic control methods and technologies;
• Simulation and assessment/evaluation of transport systems and networks;
• Electronic services and test beds in the fields of traffic management;
• Adaptation of transport networks and systems;
• Infrastructure maintenance management (land networks);
• Content management techniques.

 

The Laboratory is also responsible for the design, planning, management and maintenance of the infrastructures for multimodal transport systems and networks, research into the impacts of climate change phenomena (adaptation and prevention) and extreme weather events and natural hazards.

 

Finally, the Laboratory is responsible for the certification of infrastructures and traffic management in all surface transport systems (with a priority area the traffic management of rail systems and the ERTMS).

 

Laboratory Β4:  Intelligent intermodal Freight transport and logistics

Responsible: Dr. Georgia Aifadopoulou 

 

The laboratory B4 deals with the organisation, operation, management and optimization of freight transport systems, logistics, and the management of supply chains in urban, national, regional and international levels. The emphasis is in the intermodal chain utilization at national and international levels where the Lab B4 cooperates with the relevant Labs C1 and C2 (dealing with maritime and air transport systems). In addition, the Laboratory B4 in dealing with urban freight transport (UFT) and urban logistics solutions does so in cooperation with Sector C especially as regards the interfaces of ports and airports with the rest of the urban area. 

 

Indicatively the areas of activity of Laboratory B4 include:

• Supply chain (SC) benchmarking;
• Upgrading of the existing Supply Chains through the improvement of their individual logistics operations;
• Study of specific industries and supply chains (e.g. agro-food products)
• Cooperative resource use assessment;
• Freight transport activities environmental impact (footprint) reduction;
• Other sectors’ impact assessment on Supply Chains;
• Development and implementation of ICT technologies for supply chain monitoring, visibility and security in strategic, business and operational levels and impact assessment of their implementation;
• Freight optimization solutions implementation;
• Security of the intermodal supply chain;
• Planning, organization and management of freight terminals, with intermodal freight transport Centers in global logistics chains;
• Investigation of the particular problems of SMEs participation in the field of freight transport;
• Optimization of urban freight distribution, using algorithms and technologies (e.g. for routing & scheduling, models application adapted to the specific requirements of supply chains, etc.);
• Inventory level optimization using demand forecasting models and inventory management;
• Any other relevant action to promote freight transport and logistics research including the creation of “research clusters” and implementation of innovative business models in freight transport & logistics.

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