Are you looking for Immune System Cellular Automata? If so, then check this Conference
International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (ICARIS), Taormina 28-31 August 2012
and my Research on the Immune System →

STRATUNA: A Highway Traffic Model based on Cellular Automata

In collaboration with:
Department of Mathematics, University of Calabria, Arcavacata, Rende, CS, 87036, Italy.
Abstraqt srl, Lucca, LU, 55100, Italy.
Department of Energy Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SE-10044, Sweden.

Contextually with bioinformatics and bioengineering topics, I explored more engineering problems as well. Highway traffic is one of them: its evolution is regulated by parallel and acentric interactions among vehicles. Here I report about STRATUNA, a model for highway traffic forecasting, together with a cost system, directly fed by simulation data.

Cellular Automata are an established formal support for modelling traffic. STRATUNA is a Cellular Automata model for simulating two/three lanes highway traffic. It is based on an extensive specification of the driver response to the surrounding conditions. The model is deterministic with regard to driver behavior, even if values of parameters ruling the reactivity level of the drivers are assigned stochastically. Probability distribution functions were deduced by field data and applied to vehicular flow generation (vehicle types, driver desired speed, entrance-exit gates). A partial implementation of STRATUNA has been performed and applied to Italian highway A4 from Venice to Trieste. Simulations have been compared with available field data with results that may be considered positive. Fair results in flow forecasting lead to the implementation of an established cost system in which simulation directly provides cost forecasting in terms of congestion toll.
Papers:

1. [2008, inproceedings]
   S. Di Gregorio, R. Umeton, A. Bicocchi, and A. Evangelisti, "A Cellular Automata Model for Highway Traffic with Preliminary Results," in Proceedings 5th Italian Workshop on Artificial Life and Evolutionary Computation (WIVACE), Venice, September 8-10, 2008, pp. 235-244.
   @INPROCEEDINGS{ digregorio2008wivace,
  AUTHOR = {Di Gregorio, S and Umeton, R and Bicocchi, A and Evangelisti, A},
  TITLE = {A Cellular Automata Model for Highway Traffic with Preliminary Results},
  BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings 5th Italian Workshop on Artificial Life and Evolutionary Computation (WIVACE), Venice, September 8-10},
  YEAR = {2008},
  EDITOR = {Serra, Roberto and Villani, Marco and Poli, Irene},
  PUBLISHER = {World Scientific},
  YEAR = {2008},
  PAGES = {235--244},
  URL = {http://ebooks.worldscinet.com/ISBN/9789814287456/9789814287456_0021.html}
}
2. [2008, inproceedings]
   S. Di Gregorio, R. Umeton, A. Bicocchi, A. Evangelisti, and M. Gonzalez, "Highway Traffic Model Based on Cellular Automata: Preliminary Simulation Results with Congestion Pricing Considerations," in Proceedings of 20th European Modeling & Simulation Symposium (EMSS), Campora S.G., CS, Italy, September 17-19, 2008, pp. 665-674.
   @INPROCEEDINGS{ digregorio2008emss,
  AUTHOR = {Di Gregorio, S. and Umeton, R. and Bicocchi, A. and Evangelisti, A. and Gonzalez, M.},
  TITLE = {Highway Traffic Model Based on Cellular Automata: Preliminary Simulation Results with Congestion Pricing Considerations},
  BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of 20th European Modeling & Simulation Symposium (EMSS), Campora S.G., CS, Italy, September 17-19},
  YEAR = {2008},
  PAGES = {665--674},
  EDITOR = {Castilla Rodriguez, Ivan and Longo, Francesco},
  PUBLISHER = {Inder Science},
  URL = {http://www.umeton.com/papers/DiGregorio-EMSS08.pdf},
  ABSTRACT = {Cellular Automata are a reputable formal support for traffic modelling and simulation. STRATUNA is a Cellular Automata model for simulating the evolution of two/three lane highways. It encodes the wide specification of driver’s response to the events in his sight range. Encouraging comparison between simulated events and their corresponding in the reality bring to the specification of a theoretical general model characterized by an increased expression power and a significantly deeper forecasting potential, whose application fields are numerous and varied. Fair results in flow forecasting lead to the implementation of an established cost system in which simulation directly provides cost forecasting in terms of congestion toll.}
}

Source-code:
Proprietary, available upon request.

AMMISCA: Admissible Method for Improved Genetic Search in Cellular Automata Model

In collaboration with:
Department of Mathematics, University of Calabria, Arcavacata, Rende, CS, 87036, Italy.
High Performance Computing Center, University of Calabria, Arcavacata, Rende, CS, 87036, Italy.
Department of Soil Defense, University of Calabria, Arcavacata, Rende, CS, 87036, Italy.

Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are widely used to incrementally reach admissible solutions for hard problems such as parameter tuning in Cellular Automata (CA) models. This paper presents a genetic strategy, specifically developed for CA model calibration, exploiting the circumstance that the considered CA parameters have a physical meaning. The proposed approach has proved to be comparable and, in some cases outperforming, if compared with the standard GA proposed by Holland. As a further result, the goodness of the proposed genetic strategy opens the door to genetic tuning algorithms lacking of a standard crossover operator. Results, though preliminary, can be considered encouraging and routes to a wider analysis of the proposed approach.

Papers:

1. [2008, inproceedings]
   R. Umeton and S. Di Gregorio, "Admissible Method for Improved Genetic Search in Cellular Automata Model (ammisca): a Strategy in Genetic Calibration – Preliminary Results," in Proceedings 5th Italian Workshop on Artificial Life and Evolutionary Computation (WIVACE), Venice, September 8-10, 2008, pp. 99-108.
   @INPROCEEDINGS{ umeton2008wivace,
  AUTHOR = {Umeton, Renato and Di Gregorio, Salvatore},
  TITLE = {Admissible Method for Improved Genetic Search in Cellular Automata Model (ammisca): a Strategy in Genetic Calibration - Preliminary Results},
  BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings 5th Italian Workshop on Artificial Life and Evolutionary Computation (WIVACE), Venice, September 8-10},
  YEAR = {2008},
  EDITOR = {Serra, Roberto and Villani, Marco and Poli, Irene},
  PUBLISHER = {World Scientific},
  PAGES = {99--108},
  URL = {http://www.umeton.com/papers/Umeton-WIVACE08.pdf},
  ABSTRACT = {Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are widely used to incrementally reach admissible solutions for hard problems such as parameter tuning in Cellular Automata (CA) models. This paper presents a genetic strategy, specifically developed for CA model calibration, exploiting the circumstance that the considered CA parameters have a physical meaning. The proposed approach has proved to be comparable and, in some cases outperforming, if compared with the standard GA proposed by Holland. As a further result, the goodness of the proposed genetic strategy opens the door to genetic tuning algorithms lacking of a standard crossover operator. Results, though preliminary, can be considered encouraging and routes to a wider analysis of the proposed approach.}
}
2. [2007, inproceedings]
   M. V. Avolio, G. M. Crisci, S. Di Gregorio, R. Rongo, and R. Umeton, "Introduction of More Physical Features in the Cellular Automata Model for Lava Flows SCIARA: Preliminary Results Regarding the Viscosity," in Proceedings of Asia Oceania Geosciences Conference (AOGS), Bangkok, Thailand, July 30-August 4, 2007.
   @INPROCEEDINGS{ avolio2007,
  AUTHOR = {Avolio, M. V. and Crisci, G. M. and Di Gregorio, S. and Rongo, R. and Umeton, R.},
  TITLE = {Introduction of More Physical Features in the Cellular Automata Model for Lava Flows SCIARA: Preliminary Results Regarding the Viscosity},
  BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of Asia Oceania Geosciences Conference (AOGS), Bangkok, Thailand, July 30-August 4},
  YEAR = {2007},
  URL = {http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU2007/04208/EGU2007-J-04208.pdf}
}

Source-code:
Proprietary, available upon request.