Getting Started#
Get a License#
A license is required to use and run POLARIS. Licenses are managed by the Vehicle and Mobility Systems Department and are computer-specific, so a MAC address of the computer you intend to run POLARIS on will be required. You can initiate a license request directly using the below buttons.
Use this if you work for a federal or state government agency.
Use this if you work in the private sector.
Once the license application is finalized, you will recieve an email from the team at Argonne with the POLARIS executable and a demo model.
Download the Demo model#
We provide a small demonstration model of the Bloomington region to assist new users familiarizing themselves with the operation of POLARIS.
The demonstration model can be obtained from here.
After downloading you will find a Powerpoint presentation with useful information about folder and data structure as well as next steps.
Running POLARIS#
After obtaining a license and getting a model, the easiest way to get started with running and analyzing results from POLARIS is via our Python wrapper PolarisStudio. This can be installed directly from PyPi using pip:
pip install polaris-studio
polaris run --data_dir=/path/to/model
PolarisStudio includes windows binaries for POLARIS as well as other supporting tools for model setup, running models and analysing outputs.
The full help for PolarisStudio can be accessed via the corresponding tab at the top of this website. The example notebooks located here are the easiest way to get started.
If you are on a different operating system or in a HPC environment, we also provide a full apptainer (formerly singularity) image which can be used anywhere apptainer is installed (if it’s not installed on your HPC most administrators will happily install upon request).
apptainer run polaris-studio.sif -- run --data_dir=/path/to/model
This is not currently published publicly but can be requested via email or (if you have fileserver access) grabbed from P:\VMS_Software\15-CI-CD-Artifacts\Polaris\polaris-studio\apptainer\latest\polaris-studio.sif.
Compiling POLARIS from Source#
If you are interested in compiling or viewing the source code for POLARIS, please reach out to a team member.
A collaborator account is required, in addition to the license, to access the POLARIS source code that is hosted internally at the Argonne National Laboratory.
Once you have access to the source code, you can refer to the Getting Setup page for more details.
Reporting Problems#
If you run into problems or discover a bug in POLARIS, we maintain a publicly available issue tracker. If you don’t have a collaborator account required to create new issues, please reach out to a team member.
Getting a Data Model#
The POLARIS team at Argonne maintain models for several US metropolitan regions. The table below highlights the list of existing models and their current status. If you have a collaborator account, you can access the data models directly via the models repository in GitLab or reach out to a team member.
The example notebook here shows how to clone models from gitlab and extract in one step. Alternately, for those with access to internal fileshare systems, you can skip this step and simply copy an up-to-date models which is generated as part of our automated testing from P:\VMS_Software\15-CI-CD-Artifacts\Polaris\models.
Region |
Status |
|---|---|
Atlanta-Chattanooga-Knoxville |
Fully Operational |
Atlanta MPO-area only |
Fully Operational |
Austin |
Fully Operational |
Bloomington |
Fully Operational |
Chicago |
Fully Operational |
Dallas Ft-Worth |
Fully Operational |
DC |
In Testing |
Detroit |
Fully Operational |
Greenville |
Fully Operational |
Grid |
Fully Operational |
Honolulu |
In Progress |
Houston |
In Progress |
Indiana Statewide |
In Progress |
Los Angeles |
Fully Operational |
National |
Fully Operational |
Seattle |
In Progress |