Advanced Traffic Signal Control Using Intelligent Vehicle Infrastructure

Efficiently controlling the flow of traffic through an intersection is the primary goal of any signal controller. This paper describes an algorithm designed for the signal control problem that employs concepts drawn from the field of computer networking. The novel method introduced utilizes a maximal weight matching al-gorithm to minimize the vehicle delay at each approach. Utilizing the intelligent vehicle infrastructure, information about each vehicle’s position, speed and route may be obtained. The method employs an oldest-car-first prioritization metric, which is designed to lower the average vehicle delay across the intersection. Lya-punov function-based analysis is utilized as means of deriving the conditions under which the system is guaranteed to be stable and proof of stability of LQF-MWM is provided. The paper evaluates the performance of the proposed control scheme compared to a current state-of-the-art, vehicle-actuated traffic signal controller. The comparison is made using the VISSIM traffic simulation environment. Simulation results clearly demonstrate the performance gain obtained when using the proposed scheme, particularly in the presence of non-uniform traffic distribution scenarios.