Revolutionize how urban mobility systems respond to disruptions

AntifragiCity is a groundbreaking European research initiative aiming to revolutionize how urban mobility systems respond to disruptions. Rather than merely resisting shocks, AntifragiCity envisions cities that learn, adapt, and grow stronger through challenges—embracing the concept of antifragility.
To realize this vision, the project will develop a comprehensive framework to:

• Monitor and assess the resilience of urban transport systems in real time,
• identify and characterize disruptive events (e.g., traffic surges, modal shifts, black swan events),
• guide informed and adaptive responses via a mobility triage decision support system, and test multi-objective strategies through simulation, combining AI-powered traffic control, predictive analytics, and energy-efficient solutions.
• Citizen engagement is central to the project, with living labs and participatory methods used to ensure that solutions are co-created, inclusive, and socially grounded.

At ETH Zurich, we lead the effort to bring antifragility into urban traffic control. Traffic systems today are fragile by nature—vulnerable to demand fluctuations, technology-driven changes, and unpredictable events. Our goal is to develop learning-based traffic management algorithms that not only handle disruptions efficiently but also improve system performance over time. This includes:

• Modeling diverse stress scenarios using real-world data,
• designing new evaluation criteria for antifragile traffic operations,
• developing traffic control strategies that are robust, fair, and scalable,
• ensuring that AI models remain accurate, unbiased, and resilient even under data uncertainty.

By embedding AI, multi-agent systems, and simulation tools into real-time traffic control, our work will lay the foundations for cities that evolve stronger from every disruption.

Contact

Dr. Anastasios Kouvelas, Dr. Michail Makridis, Linghang Sun, ETH Zürich

Financing

Horizon Europe

Project timeframe

05.2025 – 04.2027