Rapid Flow Technologies

Rapid Flow Technologies provides intelligent transportation systems to the public sector, specifically focusing on municipalities and urban planners. The company operates in the smart city and mobility market, generating revenue by selling and installing its proprietary traffic management solutions. On October 11, 2022, the company was acquired by Miovision, a Canadian firm specializing in traffic management technology.

The company was founded in 2015 as a spin-out from Carnegie Mellon University to commercialize the Surtrac adaptive traffic signal system. The founders are Stephen Smith, a research professor at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, and Gregory Barlow, a former Ph.D. student. Smith, who also serves as the Chief Scientist, has an extensive background in artificial intelligence, automated planning, and scheduling, which he applied to traffic theory to develop Surtrac. The technology originated from the Traffic21 research initiative at the university. A significant milestone was the acquisition by Miovision, which aims to expand the reach of Surtrac technology.

Rapid Flow's core product is the Surtrac (Scalable Urban Traffic Control) system, an AI-powered platform designed to optimize traffic flow in real-time. Unlike traditional systems that rely on pre-programmed timing, Surtrac uses sensors like cameras or radar at each intersection to collect real-time traffic data. Each intersection's controller functions as a decentralized agent, making independent decisions to manage its immediate traffic while communicating projected outflows to neighboring intersections. This decentralized architecture allows for high scalability and avoids single points of failure. The system is designed to be hardware-agnostic, integrating with existing traffic controller equipment. The demonstrated benefits include significant reductions in travel times by up to 25%, wait times by 40%, vehicle stops by 30%, and emissions by over 20%.

Keywords: adaptive traffic signal control, intelligent transportation systems, urban mobility, smart city technology, traffic congestion management, Surtrac, real-time traffic optimization, decentralized control systems, AI in transportation, traffic flow analysis, Carnegie Mellon spin-out, vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, smart intersections, emissions reduction, transportation logistics, Stephen Smith, Miovision, Gregory Barlow, traffic management software, transportation analytics