One year after its launch, the Horizon Europe project CARMONY (Coordinated Action for Responsive Mixed Orchestration and Network Yield) has completed its initial conceptual phase and established the foundations for a new approach to mobility management based on traffic orchestration.

As transport networks become increasingly complex, with connected and automated vehicles, Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), Low Emission Zones and data-driven mobility services interacting in real time, CARMONY aims to move beyond traditional traffic control towards a more coordinated and responsive model of traffic management. The project seeks to enable infrastructure operators, mobility providers, public authorities and road users to work together through real-time data exchange, predictive decision-making and coordinated actions.

One year of CARMONY in a nutshell

During its first year, CARMONY completed the project’s conceptual and requirements phase, laying the foundations for the development and validation of its traffic orchestration approach. Key achievements include:

• Completion of the requirements and use case definition phase, including the identification and validation of user needs, operational requirements, orchestration scenarios, simulation requirements and data needs.
• Definition of the overall CARMONY traffic orchestration vision, establishing the foundations for a human-centred and responsive traffic management framework.
• Design of the initial CARMONY Orchestrator architecture, including key components, interfaces and data flows that will guide future implementation.
• Development of simulation and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) frameworks to support the validation of future solutions.
• Establishment of the CARMONY Outreach Group (COG), bringing together more than 20 organisations from the CCAM and mobility ecosystem.
• Launch of the project’s communication and stakeholder engagement activities, including its website, newsletters and partner interviews.
• Preparation of pilot activities in Murcia, Spain, and Luxembourg, which will support future testing and validation of CARMONY’s orchestration concepts.

According to Project Coordinator Simon Genser of Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH, the project’s first year has focused on transforming the initial vision into a strong collaborative and technical foundation. The consortium successfully completed all planned milestones, including the finalisation of the requirements and use case definition work package, which gathered and refined the perspectives of users, traffic managers, mobility providers and public authorities.

The project’s pilot preparations have also advanced significantly. In Murcia, partners worked with local stakeholders to define urban use cases addressing traffic optimisation, Low Emission Zones, disruptive events and emergency corridor activation. In Luxembourg, preparations focused on daily cross-border traffic flows along the A3 and A13 highway corridors, where effective orchestration requires coordination across multiple actors, systems and jurisdictions.

The work carried out during the first year has directly informed the project’s technical roadmap and future development activities. The initial orchestrator architecture, simulation framework and governance considerations will now serve as the basis for the next phase of implementation.

Looking ahead, CARMONY will focus on technical development, simulation and validation. Partners will advance the implementation of the orchestration platform, decision-support capabilities, governance models and user-facing interfaces before moving towards large-scale testing in Murcia and Luxembourg.

By combining technological innovation, stakeholder engagement and real-world validation, CARMONY aims to contribute to the next generation of mobility management solutions and support Europe’s transition towards safer, cleaner and more resilient transport systems.

Readers can learn more about the project and access its public results and deliverables through the CARMONY website and project repository