• Waterways
Waterways

Waterway Simulation#

This page describes simulations of (inland) waterways in SUMO.

Caution

The simulation of waterways is a developing subject and still carries some difficulties. These are discussed below.

Approaches to ship modelling#

Currently, no exclusive movement model for ships is implemented. Instead the existing models for vehicle movement need to be re-purposed. By setting guiShape="ship", vehicles are drawn in a more appropriate shape.

Building a network for waterway simulation#

Waterways can be imported from OSM by adding the type map osmNetconvertShips.typ.xml. They can also be explicitly specified by setting allow="ship".

Overtaking#

To allow overtaking, it is recommended to build a network that enables opposite direction driving.

If a linear body of water is wide enough to accomodate more than two ships, it can either be modelled by

  • defining multiple lanes per direction
  • defining a single wide lane per direction and enabling the sublane model

Known Problems#

  • Since the right-of-way rules for ships are more complex than those for road vehicles, waterway intersections are set to uncontrolled by default.
  • Reversing direction of ships is currently not modelled
  • All movements must be modelled by edges. Freely navigating a large body of water is not possible (unless TraCI is used).