Modeling And Simulating Traffic From A Cognitive And Qualitative Reasoning Perspective (*)

This paper presents a system for traffic modeling and simulation based on a cognitive model of commonsense reasoning about everyday physical situations . The main purpose of the system is to support control activities on circumscribed traffic situations, in which several and sudden changes occur (e.g . temporary circulation occurring in urban areas) . The system is able to predict the temporal evolution of a driving activity and of the global traffic density in a circumscribed but not static topological situation. The system has been developed using an Extended version of the Qualitative Process Theory (EQPT) which allows to represent, simulate and manage dynamical behaviour of drivers in presence of changeable situations .