Calibration of the VISSIM truck performance model using GPS data

Abstract

Traffic simulators can be used to perform safe, low cost scenario evaluation. However, their mathematical models are calibrated to scenarios commonly found in the simulators’ country of origin. VISSIM truck acceleration functions were created for trucks with better power/mass ratios than typical Brazilian trucks. This paper presents the calibration of VISSIM truck acceleration functions using the difference between real and simulated speed profiles as goodness-of-fit measures. Using GPS, speed profiles were obtained for 57 trucks travelling over a segment of 18 km, four-lane freeway situated on rolling terrain, under low traffic flow. The calibration procedure was automated and based on a genetic algorithm. Several calibration runs were performed using different numbers of generations and population size. The resulting acceleration functions are presented and discussed.

Keywords

• Traffic stream simulation
• VISSIM
• GPS
• Vehicular performance
• Calibration of microsimulation models
• Trucks.