Australian research institute NICTA and the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) are working on a joint research agreement to develop a new traffic management system to improve management of traffic incidents across the state.

The system will also be able to manage the cognitive load of its operators.

NICTA noted that as the volume of traffic increases at a rate of 5% per year on state roads, the volume of workload on the traffic management centre’s (TMC) operators also increases.

The joint research programme is aimed at finding the most effective way of operating during high-load situations, and would offer efficient solutions for operators through the new traffic management system, which will have a quicker traffic resolving time.

The new system will also possess a unique monitoring technology, which can monitor the operator’s involuntary movements, voice and speech patterns, and can understand an operator’s capacity to manage the volume of the work load.

The joint research programme for the system commenced at the end of last year, and the system will be developed and evaluated in three years, according to FutureGov Asia Pacific.