Development of Virtual Reality for Sustainable Public Transportation Simulations within the PNRR

In recent years, the public transportation and sustainable mobility industry has witnessed an increasing digital transformation, with virtual reality (VR) emerging as one of the key technologies to improve the transportation experience. This thesis aims to explore the increasing use of VR in public transportation and to analyze its role in the context of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). This thesis is developed in close collaboration with the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua, which aims to be one of the leading institutions in Italy for research in the disciplines of civil, construction and environmental engineering, with particular attention also to the interdisciplinary aspects and applications of these disciplines also in fields other than the classic ones of engineering civil, construction and environmental. In the context of the thesis, the primary purpose is to optimize the application of virtual reality in the simulation of the use of means of transportation by the citizens of Padua. Its fundamental objective is to enable tourists to evaluate the availability and possible challenges associated with specific routes, taking advantage of various means of public transportation and thus allowing the evaluation of the best solutions through simulations. The goal is to develop an authentic public transportation simulation specifically tailored to the city of Padua, accurately depicting predefined routes within its real-world context. In this sense, predefined routes are created with various means of transportation that the users can use to visualize the route to take them from destination A to arrival B and at the end of the route feedback on the users’ preferences are obtained. This project aims to conduct tests on the developed virtual reality experience, involving department collaborators and selected individuals. During these tests, each participant will engage in various scenarios simulating the use of different transportation modes. The primary aim of these tests is to assess participants’ reactions and gather feedback regarding the preferred routes simulated in these scenarios. This comprehensive analysis endeavors to pinpoint opportunities for optimization within Padua’s public transportation system, ultimately fostering enhancements in efficiency and user experience.