With its Application Platform for Intelligent Mobility (AIM), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), together with the state of Lower Saxony, the city of Braunschweig and other partners, is creating a unique way of linking up research, development and applications for intelligent transportation and mobility services.
As a major system for research, AIM enables users from science, research, development and industry to study a wide range of topics from the highly complex, interlinked world of transportation. AIM integrates and draws on the actual transport environment in the city and region of Braunschweig and includes special test tracks as well as a powerful set of instruments to simulate large-scale and microscopic aspects of mobility.
As an open and flexible research platform, AIM has been designed with longevity and sustainability in mind. Unlike previous approaches involving individual, topic-based test areas in different cities, AIM allows the test infrastructure to be reused to address a range of problems. AIM therefore considerably reduces the investment requirement for each project. The basic infrastructure can be reused in a variety of projects and modified to accommodate particular needs. AIM also makes it possible, at relatively little expense, to handle long-term data and studies that extend well beyond the typical term of individual projects (two to three years) and to ensure that the infrastructure and results can be reused.
The AIM project has received over €15 million in funding from the Helmholtz Association and the state of Lower Saxony. The research and development projects to be carried out with AIM are being supported in the medium term with additional resources from the public purse or industry and scientific cooperations.
Variety of topics enabled by a flexible and sustainable platform
Studies that place great demands on the system and that are extremely technically complex can be completed effectively with AIM. As financial and technical resources are consistently grouped together, users enjoy a more extensive portfolio of methods and technologies, which reduces lead times and investment costs.
AIM allows the scientists at DLR and its partners to model and systematically examine an unprecedented range of topics in the area of intelligent mobility services – both for multimodal and specific modes of transport. The overarching goals are to improve safety for all traffic participants, ensure traffic flows efficiently, and protect resources. With these aims in mind, AIM is associated with five main research interests: traffic flow optimisation, intermodal mobility, future mobility concepts, introduction of new and migration from existing systems, and mobility awareness.
AIM in the city and region of Braunschweig 
AIM uses an entire region and its real traffic infrastructure as a research area.
This makes it possible to study extremely complex phenomena, for instance the issue of how the transportation of persons and goods can be managed more efficiently using a combination of different means of transportation.
With just under one million residents and connections to the motorway and rail networks, the region of Braunschweig provides ideal conditions for this purpose. Through their mobility behaviour – be it trips to school, work or the shops by car, bus, tram, rail or bike – all of the region's inhabitants contribute to transport research and therefore also to mobility for the future.
AIM is primarily a research platform for transport-related applications. In addition, AIM helps bring together regional transport research activities in Lower Saxony. For instance, AIM complements the activities of the Automotive Research Centre of Lower Saxony (NFF), the Technical University of Braunschweig and other industry and research partners.
AIM is an addition to existing large-scale systems
AIM adds to the existing large-scale systems of the DLR Institute of Transportation Systems, each of which is used for individual research issues. They are linked to AIM on a project basis and can thus be used to answer specific and complex questions.
Simulators
Traffíc Tower, Dynamic Driving Simulator, VR-Lab / HMI-Lab, SMPLab, RailSiTe
Measuring Vehicles
ViewCar, FASCar, RailDriVE, UTRaCar and MoMoCar
Urban Traffic Research Laboratory
UTRaLab