Andrea Tosin

Politecnico di Torino | polito · DISMA - Department of Mathematical Sciences

We study the derivation of non-local macroscopic traffic models out of optimal speed and follow-the-leader particle dynamics as hydrodynamic limits of non-local Povzner-type kinetic equations. As a first step, we show that optimal speed vehicle dynamics produce a first order macroscopic model with non-local flux. Next, we show that non-local follow...

In this paper, we propose a Boltzmann-type kinetic description of mass-varying interacting multi-agent systems. Our agents are characterised by a microscopic state, which changes due to their mutual interactions, and by a label, which identifies a group to which they belong. Besides interacting within and across the groups, the agents may change la...

In this paper, we propose a Boltzmann-type kinetic model of the spreading of an infectious disease on a network. The latter describes the connections among countries, cities or districts depending on the spatial scale of interest. The disease transmission is represented in terms of the viral load of the individuals and is mediated by social contact...

We study the derivation of generic high order macroscopic traffic models from a follow-the-leader particle description via a kinetic approach. First, we recover a third order traffic model as the hydrodynamic limit of an Enskog-type kinetic equation. Next, we introduce in the vehicle interactions a binary control modelling the automatic feedback pr...

The application of classical methods of statistical mechanics, originally developed by Ludwig Boltzmann in gas dynamics, to the description of social phenomena is a success story that we try to outline in this paper. On one hand, it is nowadays a flourishing research line, which is more and more permeating different contexts such as the Econophysic...

We study the derivation of macroscopic traffic models out of optimal speed and follow-the-leader particle dynamics as hydrodynamic limits of non-local Povzner-type kinetic equations. As a first step, we show that optimal speed vehicle dynamics produce a first order macroscopic model with non-local flux. Next, we show that non-local follow-the-leade...

Starting from the concept of binary interactions between pairs of particles, a kinetic framework for the description of the action potential dynamics on a neural network is proposed. It consists of two coupled levels: the description of a single brain region dynamics and the interactions among different regions. On one side, the pairwise interactio...

The viral load is known to be a chief predictor of the risk of transmission of infectious diseases. In this work, we investigate the role of the individuals' viral load in the disease transmission by proposing a new susceptible-infectious-recovered epidemic model for the densities and mean viral loads of each compartment. To this aim, we formally d...

Starting from the concept of binary interactions between pairs of particles, a kinetic framework for the description of the action potential dynamics on a neural network is proposed. It consists of two coupled levels: the description of a single brain region dynamics and the interactions among different regions. On one side, the pairwise interactio...

We present a control hierarchy approach to traffic flow consisting in a multiscale path from the vehicle-wise implementation of driver-assist controls to their optimal hydrodynamic design. Specifically, we show how controlled Generic Second Order Models (GSOMs) of vehicular traffic may be derived out of a Follow-the-Leader particle description via...

In this talk, we present a Boltzmann-type kinetic approach to networked interactions in multi-agent systems. We discuss the use of Boltzmann-type collisional equations to: (i) describe binary interactions mediated by a graph structure of the connections among the agents; (ii) investigate the impact of such a graph structure on the emergence of aggr...

The viral load is known to be a chief predictor of the risk of transmission of infectious diseases. In this work, we investigate the role of the individuals' viral load in the disease transmission by proposing a new susceptible-infectious-recovered epidemic model for the densities and mean viral loads of each compartment. To this aim, we formally d...

In this paper, we focus on the construction of a hybrid scheme for the approximation of non-Maxwellian kinetic models with uncertainties. In the context of multiagent systems, the introduction of a kernel at the kinetic level is useful to avoid unphysical interactions. The methods here proposed, combine a direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) in the...

The onset and spreading of Alzheimer's disease in the cerebral tissue is a macroscopic outcome of cellular and subcellular chemical processes happening to single neurons. In recent years, the mathematical modelling of Alzheimer's disease has gained a lot of momentum in an attempt to help understand its fundamentals so far known mostly at a descript...

Mathematical models are formal and simplified representations of the knowledge related to a phenomenon. In classical epidemic models, a neglected aspect is the heterogeneity of disease transmission and progression linked to the viral load of each infectious individual. Here, we attempt to investigate the interplay between the evolution of individua...

In this paper, we propose a Boltzmann-type kinetic description of opinion formation on social networks, which takes into account a general connectivity distribution of the individuals. We consider opinion exchange processes inspired by the Sznajd model and related simplifications but we do not assume that individuals interact on a regular lattice....

We present the derivation of macroscopic traffic models from car-following vehicle dynamics by means of hydrodynamic limits of an Enskog-type kinetic description. We consider the superposition of Follow-the-Leader (FTL) interactions and relaxation towards a traffic-dependent Optimal Velocity (OV) and we show that the resulting macroscopic models de...

In this paper, we focus on the construction of a hybrid scheme for the approximation of non-Maxwellian kinetic models with uncertainties. In the context of multiagent systems, the introduction of a kernel at the kinetic level is useful to avoid unphysical interactions. The methods here proposed, combine a direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) in the...

In this paper, we derive second order hydrodynamic traffic models from kinetic-controlled equations for driver-assist vehicles. At the vehicle level we take into account two main control strategies synthesising the action of adaptive cruise controls and cooperative adaptive cruise controls. The resulting macroscopic dynamics fulfil the anisotropy c...

We study the derivation of macroscopic traffic models from car-following vehicle dynamics by means of hydrodynamic limits of an Enskog-type kinetic description. We consider the superposition of Follow-the-Leader (FTL) interactions and relaxation towards a traffic-dependent Optimal Velocity (OV) and we show that the resulting macroscopic models depe...

We propose a mathematical model for the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease based on transport and diffusion equations. We treat brain neurons as a continuous medium and structure them by their degree of malfunctioning. Three different mechanisms are assumed to be relevant for the temporal evolution of the disease: i) diffusion and agglome...

In this paper, we propose a Boltzmann-type kinetic description of opinion formation on social networks, which takes into account a general connectivity distribution of the individuals. We consider opinion exchange processes inspired by the Sznajd model and related simplifications but we do not assume that individuals interact on a regular lattice....

In this paper, we propose a kinetic model of traffic flow with uncertain binary interactions, which explains the scattering of the fundamental diagram in terms of the macroscopic variability of aggregate quantities, such as the mean speed and the flux of the vehicles, produced by the microscopic uncertainty. Moreover, we design control strategies a...

We present the derivation of Generic Second Order macroscopic Models (GSOMs) of vehicular traffic out of a Follow-the-Leader particle description via a kinetic approach. In the vehicle interactions, we introduce a binary control modelling the automatic feedback provided by driver-assist vehicles, then we upscale such a controlled particle dynamics...

We study the derivation of macroscopic traffic models from car-following vehicle dynamics by means of hydrodynamic limits of an Enskog-type kinetic description. We consider the superposition of Follow-the-Leader (FTL) interactions and relaxation towards a traffic-dependent Optimal Velocity (OV) and we show that the resulting macroscopic models depe...

Mathematical models are formal and simplified representations of the knowledge related to a phenomenon. In classical epidemic models, a neglected aspect is the heterogeneity of disease transmission and progression linked to the viral load of each infectious individual. Here, we attempt to investigate the interplay between the evolution of individua...

We present a Boltzmann-type kinetic approach to the spread of an infectious disease on a network which describes the links (migration paths) among countries, cities or districts depending on the spatial scale of interest. We model the disease transmission in terms of exchange of microscopic viral load mediated by social contacts among the individua...

In this paper, we propose a Boltzmann-type kinetic model of the spreading of an infectious disease on a network. The latter describes the connections among countries, cities or districts depending on the spatial scale of interest. The disease transmission is represented in terms of the viral load of the individuals and is mediated by social contact...

In this paper, we derive second order hydrodynamic traffic models from kinetic-controlled equations for driver-assist vehicles. At the vehicle level we take into account two main control strategies synthesising the action of adaptive cruise controls and cooperative adaptive cruise controls. The resulting macroscopic dynamics fulfil the anisotropy c...

In this paper, we propose a Boltzmann-type kinetic description of mass-varying interacting multi-agent systems. Our agents are characterised by a microscopic state, which changes due to their mutual interactions, and by a label, which identifies a group to which they belong. Besides interacting within and across the groups, the agents may change la...

In this work we investigate the ability of a kinetic approach for traffic dynamics to predict speed distributions obtained through rough data. The present approach adopts the formalism of uncertainty quantification, since reaction strengths are uncertain and linked to different types of driver behaviour or different classes of vehicles present in t...

The book originates from the mini-symposium "Mathematical descriptions of traffic flow: micro, macro and kinetic models" organised by the editors within the ICIAM 2019 Congress held in Valencia, Spain, in July 2019. The book is composed of five chapters, which address new research lines in the mathematical modelling of vehicular traffic, at the cut...

Unlike the classical kinetic theory of rarefied gases, where microscopic interactions among gas molecules are described as binary collisions, the modelling of socioeconomic phenomena in a multi-agent system naturally requires to consider, in various situations, multiple interactions among the individuals. In this paper, we collect and discuss some...

In this paper, we consider a kinetic description of follow-the-leader traffic models, which we use to study the effect of vehicle-wise driver-assist control strategies at various scales, from that of the local traffic up to that of the macroscopic stream of vehicles. We provide theoretical evidence of the fact that some typical control strategies,...

We study the derivation of generic high order macroscopic traffic models from a follow-the-leader particle description via a kinetic approach. First, we recover a third order traffic model as the hydrodynamic limit of an Enskog-type kinetic equation. Next, we introduce in the vehicle interactions a binary control modelling the automatic feedback pr...

We propose a mathematical model for the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease based on transport and diffusion equations. We treat brain neurons as a continuous medium and structure them by their degree of malfunctioning. Three different mechanisms are assumed to be relevant for the temporal evolution of the disease: i) diffusion and agglome...

In this paper we consider a Boltzmann-type kinetic description of Follow-the-Leader traffic dynamics and we study the resulting asymptotic distributions, namely the counterpart of the Maxwellian distribution of the classical kinetic theory. In the Boltzmann-type equation we include a non-constant collision kernel, in the form of a cutoff, in order...

The application of classical methods of statistical mechanics, originally developed by Ludwig Boltzmann in gas dynamics, to the description of social phenomena is a successful story that we try to outline in this paper. On one hand, it is nowadays a flourishing research line, which is more and more permeating different contexts such as the econophy...

Multi-agent systems can be successfully described by kinetic models, which allow one to explore the large scale aggregate trends resulting from elementary microscopic interactions. The latter may be formalised as collision-like rules, in the spirit of the classical kinetic approach in gas dynamics, but also as Markov jump processes, which assume th...

The kinetic description of vehicular traffic is one of the first examples in which methods of the statistical physics were applied to a particle system different from a standard gas. Such an approach was initiated by the Russian physicist Ilya Prigogine in the sixties, in an attempt to explain the emergence of collective properties as a result of i...

We study the derivation of second order macroscopic traffic models from kinetic descriptions. In particular, we recover the celebrated Aw-Rascle model as the hydrodynamic limit of an Enskog-type kinetic equation out of a precise characterisation of the microscopic binary interactions among the vehicles. Unlike other derivations available in the lit...

In this paper we consider a Boltzmann-type kinetic description of Follow-the-Leader traffic dynamics and we study the resulting asymptotic distributions, namely the counterpart of the Maxwellian distribution of the classical kinetic theory. In the Boltzmann-type equation we include a non-Maxwellian, viz. non-constant, collision kernel in order to e...

In this work we investigate the ability of a kinetic approach for traffic dynamics to predict speed distributions obtained through rough data. The present approach adopts the formalism of uncertainty quantification, since reaction strengths are uncertain and linked to different types of driver behaviour or different classes of vehicles present in t...

We consider a class of optimal control problems for measure-valued nonlinear transport equations describing traffic flow problems on networks. The objective is to minimise/maximise macroscopic quantities, such as traffic volume or average speed, controlling few agents, for example smart traffic lights and automated cars. The measure theoretic appro...

In this paper, we discuss the passage to hydrodynamic equations for kinetic models of opinion formation. The considered kinetic models feature an opinion density depending on an additional microscopic variable, identified with the personal preference. This variable describes an opinion-driven polarisation process, leading finally to a choice among...

In this paper we consider a kinetic description of follow-the-leader traffic models, which we use to study the effect of vehicle-wise driver-assist control strategies at various scales, from that of the local traffic up to that of the macroscopic stream of vehicles. We provide a theoretical evidence of the fact that some typical control strategies,...

Unlike the classical kinetic theory of rarefied gases, where microscopic interactions among gas molecules are described as binary collisions, the modelling of socio-economic phenomena in a multi-agent system naturally requires to consider, in various situations, multiple interactions among the individuals. In this paper, we collect and discuss some...

The modern mathematical theory of vehicular traffic was born approximately at the beginning of the sixties with some works proposing models of the flow of vehicles along a road at the three main representation scales: the microscopic one, which describes the vehicles as interacting particles; the macroscopic one, which assimilates the vehicles to a...

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of online gambling sites, which made gambling more accessible with a consequent rise in related problems, such as addiction. Hence, the analysis of the gambling behaviour at both the individual and the aggregate levels has become the object of several investigations. In this paper, resorting to classi...

We introduce a kinetic description of control problems for vehicular traffic aimed at dampening some structural uncertainties responsible for scattered aggregate trends. In more detail, we model stochastic microscopic interactions among the vehicles, subject to an instantaneous control when they involve driver-assist vehicles. Then, we upscale them...

We study the derivation of second order macroscopic traffic models from kinetic descriptions. In particular, we recover the celebrated Aw-Rascle model as the hydrodynamic limit of an Enskog-type kinetic equation out of a precise characterisation of the microscopic binary interactions among the vehicles. Unlike other derivations available in the lit...

Multi-agent systems can be successfully described by kinetic models, which allow one to explore the large scale aggregate trends resulting from elementary microscopic interactions. The latter may be formalised as collision-like rules, in the spirit of the classical kinetic approach in gas dynamics, but also as Markov jump processes, which assume th...

In this talk, we present a hierarchical description of control problems for vehicular traffic, which aim to mitigate speed-dependent risk factors. In particular, we implement mathematically the idea that a few automated cars can be controlled in order to align the speeds in the traffic stream either to each other or to some recommended optimal spee...

We develop a hierarchical description of traffic flow control by means of driver-assist vehicles aimed at the mitigation of speed-dependent road risk factors. Microscopic feedback control strategies are designed at the level of vehicle-to-vehicle interactions and then upscaled to the global flow via a kinetic approach based on a Boltzmann-type equa...

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of online gambling sites, which made gambling more accessible with a consequent rise in related problems, such as addiction. Hence, the analysis of the gambling behaviour at both the individual and the aggregate levels has become the object of several investigations. In this paper, resorting to classi...

In this paper, we propose a kinetic model of traffic flow with uncertain binary interactions, which explains the scattering of the fundamental diagram in terms of the macroscopic variability of aggregate quantities, such as the mean speed and the flux of the vehicles, produced by the microscopic uncertainty. Moreover, we design control strategies a...

In this paper, we discuss the passage to hydrodynamic equations for kinetic models of opinion formation. The considered kinetic models feature an opinion density depending on an additional microscopic variable, identified with the personal preference. This variable describes an opinion-driven polarisation process, leading finally to a choice among...

In this work we present a two-dimensional kinetic traffic model which takes into account speed changes both when vehicles interact along the road lanes and when they change lane. Assuming that lane changes are less frequent than interactions along the same lane and considering that their mathematical description can be done up to some uncertainty i...

We present a novel kinetic model of opinion formation on social networks, which takes into account a realistic statistical description of the background connectivity of the users of social media. The model is then coupled with a kinetic-type description of the spreading of the popularity of an online content (such as e.g., an advertisement, a messa...

The speed distribution of the vehicles in the traffic stream is at the core of the problem of road risk. Several reports on traffic safety in European and non-European countries stress that differences among the speeds of the vehicles are particularly responsible for a sensible increase in the crash risk. Not by chance modern Adaptive Cruise Contro...

In this paper we study binary interaction schemes with uncertain parameters for a general class of Boltzmann-type equations with applications in classical gas and aggregation dynamics. We consider deterministic (i.e., a priori averaged) and stochastic kinetic models, corresponding to different ways of understanding the role of uncertainty in the sy...

We introduce and discuss kinetic models of opinion formation on social networks in which the distribution function depends on both the opinion and the connectivity of the agents. The opinion formation model is subsequently coupled with a kinetic model describing the spreading of popularity of a product on the web through a social network. Numerical...

We develop a hierarchical description of traffic flow control by means of driver-assist vehicles aimed at the mitigation of speed-dependent road risk factors. Microscopic feedback control strategies are designed at the level of vehicle-to-vehicle interactions and then upscaled to the global flow via a kinetic approach based on a Boltzmann-type equa...

In this paper we present a Boltzmann-type kinetic approach to the modelling of road traffic, which includes control strategies at the level of microscopic binary interactions aimed at the mitigation of speed-dependent road risk factors. Such a description is meant to mimic a system of driver-assist vehicles, which by responding locally to the actio...

We study a nonlinear transport equation defined on an oriented network where the velocity field depends not only on the state variable, but also on the solution itself. We prove existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence results for the solution of the problem intended in a suitable measure-theoretic sense. We also provide a representation for...