Traffic is increasing globally, leading to problems such as congestion, increased accident risk, and higher emissions of greenhouse gases and noise. Road congestion is a substantial challenge for modern cities, and it is expected to worsen as the number of people living in urban areas is projected to more than double by 2045.

One promising approach for improving road traffic is through cooperation among all road users, including cooperative driving vehicles. Additionally, cooperative air traffic can supplement road traffic. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones are a good example of this. Reliable wireless communication is a common basis for cooperation between these mobile systems.

Platooning is an ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) application used to address road traffic problems. It forms convoys of vehicles that drive in close coordination, maintaining a distance of only a few meters between consecutive vehicles. Platooning tackles safety and congestion problems of modern traffic by cooperatively coordinating vehicles among each other. It involves control theory, dynamics of vehicles, different aspects of communication, and traffic engineering.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones, are increasingly being considered for air traffic within cities, particularly in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities. UAVs have been utilized for parcel delivery services in recent years, with companies such as DHL and UPS already presenting prototypes. As a result, a strong increase in the number of UAVs in the air can be expected in future smart cities.

My research focuses on cooperative mobile systems in urban and suburban areas. Platooning in these areas is more dynamic and flexible compared to platooning on freeways due to varying speed limits, single carriageways, intersections, traffic lights, and other distinctive features. First results demonstrate the benefits of platooning at urban traffic lights with static traffic light scheduling. UAVs have the potential to serve as mobile base stations for road traffic and also to shift a portion of traffic to the air, such as delivery traffic.

In addition to the impact on traffic, an important research question is the efficient use of communication resources. This can be achieved through the combination of technologies and adaptive protocols that make efficient use of available resources based on various parameters.

I received my B.Sc. in Applied Computer Science from the Fachhochschule der Wirtschaft (FHDW) Paderborn in 2011 and my M.Sc. in Computer Science from the Paderborn University in 2015. I joined the Ascora GmbH in northern Germany afterward and worked on national and international BMBF and EU projects. I joined the Cooperative Mobile Systems Group as a PhD Student in 2018.

Research Interests

  • Urban Platooning
  • Urban Mobility
  • Network Simulations
  • Drone / UAV Simulations
  • Heterogeneous Vehicular Networks
  • Inter Vehicle Communication