Integration of dynamic vehicle routing and microscopic traffic simulation

Dynamic vehicle routing (DVR) systems are the key component of ATIS. DVR systems are designed to provide route recommendations based on actual or predicted traffic conditions. DVR is concerned with design of the best vehicle routes on which the drivers are serviced during their allowable or requested time of periods. DVR is highly sensitive to the time at which the trip starts at certain time and en-route time encounters different delay since travel time varies considerably with the departing time. Travel times are also very important for routing decision since they impact the decision of whether a driver could be assigned to a specific route. Microscopic traffic simulation is frequently used to study the effect of various factors on traffic parameters such as link travel times. The author proposed a new approach, which integrates and incorporate the traffic simulation modeling and dynamic routing capabilities into a dynamic vehicle routing system. This approach uses simulation models to mimic actual traffic conditions as functions of times along the potential routes to provide optimal routes.