The European research project MITHOS was launched in September with a kick-off event in San Sebastián, Spain. The high-profile consortium brings together 14 partner organisations from seven European countries and is working to develop an innovative, AI-supported decision support system for monitoring, redesigning and maintaining multimodal transport infrastructures.
The aim is to manage roads, railways, cycle paths and ports more efficiently, safely and sustainably.
Multimodal transport networks face major challenges
Multimodal transport – i.e. the seamless integration of different modes of transport – is considered the key to sustainable mobility for people and goods. However, there are currently significant shortcomings: inefficient interfaces between modes of transport, high operating costs and fragmented data processing make holistic control difficult. Existing tools mostly focus on individual modes of transport and do not meet the requirements of modern data integration or the FAIR principles. These guidelines ensure that data is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable – meaning that it can be easily found, used, combined and reused by both humans and machines.
Innovative AI system for better decisions
MITHOS is addressing these challenges by developing a cloud-based platform that consolidates data from various sources in a Federated Smart Data (FSD) module. Integrated in real time, this data forms the basis for an AI-supported Decision Support System (DSS) that enables multi-criteria optimisation and is visualised through an interactive human-machine interface.
A central element is the Bundle of Fundamental Tools (BFT), which provides improved simulations for the evaluation of multimodal infrastructures. In addition, an impact assessment module is being developed to evaluate the overall benefits and sustainability of the proposed measures.
The effectiveness of the system is being tested in four pilot regions – Bilbao, Hamburg, Vienna/Linz and Thessaloniki. Different multimodal contexts and infrastructures are being mapped there to demonstrate the practicality of the system under real conditions.
AIT contributes expertise in AI and infrastructure management
The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology contributes its many years of expertise in the areas of infrastructure analysis, traffic safety, data integration and simulation to the project. Particular emphasis is placed on the development of methods for intelligently linking heterogeneous data sources and on the design of user-friendly decision-making tools for authorities, infrastructure operators and political decision-makers.
"The project offers an outstanding approach combining data acquisition, AI-supported processing and realistic pilot tests to improve multimodal mobility systems. Existing and new data are merged with innovative technologies to create a powerful decision support tool that assists stakeholders in areas such as road construction, condition assessment and maintenance. The AIT is involved in the MITHOS project as part of a strong consortium with a national motorway and cycle path pilot, paving the way for technological advancement through applied research," explains road safety researcher Paul Rosenkranz, project manager at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology.
In Austria, AIT is coordinating the pilot for motorway and cycle infrastructure in close cooperation with ASFINAG. The institute is thus making a significant contribution to the development of practical applications that can be directly incorporated into national infrastructure planning and maintenance.
Project consortium
- Asociacion Centro Tecnológico CEIT (coordinator)
- AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
- DLR Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V.
- Ethniko Kentro Erevnas kai Technologikis Anaptyxis (CERTH)
- EMISIA SA
- PATRIC Prague Advanced Technology and Research Innovation Center
- IFP Energies nouvelles
- JKU Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
- KEITA Mobility Factory SL
- Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt
- Asociacion Cluster de Movilidad y Logistica de Euskadi
- Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg
- Ayuntamiento de Bilbao
- Organismos Sygkoinoniakoy Ergou Thessalonikis
This project receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101202959.