Recently I represented Robots in Search (RIS) AU at the Sydney chapter of GovHack 2015. This was in partnership with RIS sister company Urban Design Systems Syndicate (UDSS). This was our first GovHack and an awesome experience. The Govt of NSW and Australian Bureau of Statistics made available large amounts of data for the developers and designers to hack problems about subjects such as health, transportation etc.
Team RIS/UDSS was keen to explore the field of urban design and sustainability. And with the data trends around commuter movement trends across Sydney, we looked into trends of idea of peak hour road congestion in Sydney’s west. Looking through the data, we decided to consider a number of options based on efficient usage of existing commuter resources and available robotics technology.
RIS has been dealing in Automotive RADAR sensors for a while now. Automotive RADAR can be a vital tool for transport managers, local and state governments, commuters and similar stakeholders in reducing peak hour congestion, helping direct the trrafic to the right lanes. Automotive RADARs and Trrafic RADAR devices can be embedded with the existing traffic management systems to provide traffic information/visuals and alternative route suggestions. Similarly, such devices can also be made available to individual commuters and will go far in causing bottlenecks and piled up traffic.
GovHack 2015 proved to be an insightful experience for our team, and hacking through the urban transportation issues, we learned a great deal about our customer and the areas where our products can help resolve future problems today.