Aimsun (short for "Advanced Interactive Microscopic Simulator for Urban and Non-Urban Networks") is a software company that provides

simulation software Simulation software is based on the process of modeling a real phenomenon with a set of mathematical formulas. It is, essentially, a program that allows the user to observe an operation through simulation without actually performing that operation ...

and services for transportation planning and

traffic management Traffic management is a key branch within logistics. It concerns the planning, control and purchasing of transport services needed to physically move vehicles (for example aircraft, road vehicles, rolling stock and watercraft) and freight. Tr ...

Overview

Aimsun was founded in 1997 and developed Aimsun Next traffic modeling software, which simulates mobility in networks. Aimsun also develops Aimsun Live, which is a simulation-based traffic forecasting software as well as Aimsun Auto for studying path planning in driverless vehicles, and Aimsun Ride for modeling demand-responsive transportation services. Aimsun was acquired by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

in 2018 for an undisclosed sum, as part of the

Siemens Mobility Siemens Mobility GmbH is a division of Siemens. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens Mobility has four core business units: Mobility Management, dedicated to rail technology and intelligent traffic systems, Railway Electrification, ...

Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) unit. In 2021, Siemens Mobility carved out the Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) unit, of which Aimsun is a part, and renamed it Yunex Traffic. In 2022, Italian infrastructure group

Mundys Mundys (; formerly Atlantia ) is an Italian holding company active in the motorway and airport infrastructure and mobility-related services industry, operating tolling services in 24 countries, including 11 for motorway and airport infrastructur ...

(then known as Atlantia) bought Siemens' Yunex Traffic division for 950 million euros ($1.1 billion) to expand its transport services, making Aimsun a part of the Mundys group.

Transport models

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(Aimsun Paris match) *

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

(

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

, Aimsun Next platform) *

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

(Aimsun Abu Dhabi transport model) *

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

(Aimsun Live Technology Trial in Singapore) *

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

(Aimsun smart traffic management pilot in Norway) *

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

(Transport predictive solution)

Aimsun live

Aimsun Live is a traffic forecasting software, developed and marketed by Aimsun.

Traffic control Traffic management is a key branch within logistics. It concerns the planning, control and purchasing of transport services needed to physically move vehicles (for example aircraft, road vehicles, rolling stock and watercraft) and freight. Traff ...

centers use Aimsun Live (formerly Aimsun Online) to make real-time decisions about the management of a road network. It is used to forecast future traffic conditions based on the current state of the network and to evaluate incident response or traffic management strategies. Aimsun Live connects with the traffic control center, continuously processing live field data. By combining these live traffic data feeds and simulations with the emulation of congestion mitigation strategies, Aimsun Live can accurately forecast the future network flow patterns that will result from a particular traffic management or information provision strategy. Aimsun Live was launched in 2008 and is now fully deployed on Interstate 15 in San Diego, Grand Lyon in France, and other locations worldwide. It uses live traffic data feeds and simulations to forecast future traffic conditions for large

Urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s and regional networks. It analyzes real-time inputs from disparate sources of information, such as field traffic controllers, detectors, incident reports and live data feeds from key intersections. Using up-to-date field data, Aimsun Live identifies, retrieves, and loads a travel demand matrix for the road network being managed. It finds the closest match between the data received in real time and several demand patterns stored in a database. The demand pattern

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

is created in a prior step by carrying out an analysis of historical data.

Real-time simulation

This step involves the dynamic (mesoscopic or microscopic) simulation of one or more scenarios in real time. Each scenario is simulated on a dedicated computer. The simulations produce dynamic forecasts of traffic conditions at a detailed, local level for the next 30–60 minutes. Each simulation considers a concrete set of actions that might be applied in order to improve the network situation. One of the scenarios always corresponds to the ‘do nothing' case. The area included in the simulation model depends on the type of network being managed. It is typically defined using equilibrium assignment techniques, which evaluate at a high level the impact of local but significant capacity changes on the rest of the network. The objective is to exclude areas that are unlikely to be affected by incidents or responses to those incidents. Simulations typically last 1–3 minutes depending on hardware specifications, network size and level of congestion (number of vehicles). These simulations are run in 'batch mode' (without animation in 2D or 3D) in order to improve performance. Response information is presented visually online to provide support for operational decision making. Traffic control operators are provided with quick snapshots of predicted traffic flow and performance indicators for different control alternatives.

Other features

* Customization to work with traffic control software * Assimilation of new data to improve the quality of predictions over time

Practical uses

* Online travel information systems * Dynamic emergency vehicle routing * Emissions management * Accident response strategy assessments * Urban and interurban congestion management * Security threat mitigation and large-scale evacuation management

Project examples

Aimsun Live is or has been used to inform operational decisions for: * Network Emissions / Vehicle Flow Management Adjustment toolkit (NEVFMA) in collaboration with

Oxfordshire County Council Oxfordshire County Council is the county council (upper-tier local authority) for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire in the South East of England. Established in 1889, it is an elected body responsible for most strategic local government ...

, EarthSense and

. An Aimsun Live deployment, with integrated air dispersion modeling. * Central Florida Regional Integrated Corridor Management System for Florida DOT in collaboration with

Southwest Research Institute Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is an independent and nonprofit applied research and development (R&D) organization. Founded in 1947 by oil businessman Tom Slick, it provides contract research and deve ...

. Aimsun Live is the predictive engine that will analyze and forecast the effectiveness of response plans to mitigate congestion. *Wiesbaden: DIGI-V - for the City of

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

. Aimsun is working in collaboration with

to help lower traffic-related nitrogen oxide emissions with an extensive air pollution control package covering all areas of mobility. To achieve this reduction in traffic-related emissions, extensive environmental and traffic data will be recorded, analyzed and processed in real time. *Sydney: M4 Smart Motorway System - for

Transport for New South Wales Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is a Government of New South Wales, New South Wales Government transport services and roads List of New South Wales government agencies, agency established on 1 November 2011. The agency is a different entity to the NSW ...

. Aimsun Live is the traffic prediction software at the heart of the NSW Government's M4 Smart Motorway project. The project uses real-time data, communications and ITS to improve traffic flow. *Singapore: 2019 technology trial for real-time traffic simulation and prediction - Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA). Aimsun collaborated with the Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA) to develop a real-time traffic simulation and predictive system in Aimsun Live. *Integrated Corridor Management Project on Interstate 15, San Diego, CA - for

SANDAG The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for San Diego County, California. It is an association of local county governments, with policy makers consisting of mayors, councilmembers, and co ...

. In 2014 and again in 2016, the project received the Operational Efficiency Program of the Year award from th
California Transportation Foundation
. * Leicester: Urban Traffic Management and Air Quality (uTRAQ) study for the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

in collaboration with TRL and the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

. Satellite-generated atmospheric data helped local authorities to devise real-time traffic management strategies for reducing pollution levels. * OPTICITIES -

Grand Lyon The Metropolis of Lyon (, ), also known as Grand Lyon (, "Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity in the east-central Regions of France, region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly-elected metropolitan authority, encompassing b ...

. This three-year, EC-backed pilot project showed how prediction tools could help traffic center operators anticipate and mitigate congestion, particularly at peak times. * M30, Madrid, Spain Aimsun built and implemented a simulation-based traffic forecasting system for traffic evacuation and incident response operations in the Madrid traffic control center.

Recognition

* Highways Industry category award for Aimsun’s air quality modelling solution at the Highways Awards. * Smart Transport Infrastructure Award (M4 Smart Motorway Project – Simulation-Based Support for Smart Motorway Infrastructure) * Won Excellence in Research and Development Award by ITS for Sydney Victoria Road Intelligent Decision Support System

References

External links

* {{official, aimsun.com Simulation software Traffic management