The route to cleaner air

A three-year research project jointly funded by the Department for Transport and EPSRC is to create a sensor network that will allow traffic pollution to be reduced by managing vehicle movements in real time.

The Pervasive Mobile Environmental Sensor Grids (PMESG) study is due to be launched at the

at

's Excel arena in October.

Transport-based grid

The 3.5m project involves a collaboration between the universities of Leeds,

,

and Southampton and Prof John Polak at

,

.

It aims to create four proof of concept demonstrators, each different, in

,

, Gateshead and

. Industrial partners include IBM UK Labs, SERCO, Boeing and Thales Research. Local authorities and government agencies involved include Hampshire County Council, the Highways Agency and Transport for

.

The PSMEG study's goal is to use new sensors and e-science to create the first transport-based grid that can gather, transmit, integrate, model and interpret vast quantities of highly diverse spatially and temporally varying sensor data.