Fujitsu And Carnegie Mellon University Collaborate

A Social Digital Twin digitally reproduces the relationships and connections between people, goods, the economy and society to offer a simulation, prediction and decision-making environment in which to solve diverse and complex social issues. This research is the first attempt between Fujitsu and CMU to explore future applications of Social Digital Twins in global communities.

A project through CMU’s Mobility Data Analytics Center (MAC) will leverage real-world data, including input of traffic regulations and the movement of vehicles, to evaluate the effectiveness of measures designed to dynamically estimate and control traffic flow.

Another project with the CMU’s Computational Behavior Lab in the School of Computer Science’s Robotics Institute will extend current capabilities in 3D modeling of pedestrians and forecasting their behavior over time in urban environments. This technology can be used to monitor activity on streets and determine where issues or accidents may be taking place.

CMU’s efforts will be led by Laszlo A. Jeni, director of the Computational Behavior Lab, and Sean Qian, director of the MAC. Fujitsu and CMU will draw on the findings of these projects to create foundational technologies for Social Digital Twins that will simulate traffic networks and movement patterns of people in real-time. That work will build off of the deployment of the researchers’ projects with CMU’s transportation research institute, Traffic21.

The researchers anticipate that the Social Digital Twin technology will play an active role in improving efforts to ease congestion, positively influence travel behavior and ultimately help to realize more sustainable and safe cities in the future.