A Multi-criteria Intelligent Control for Traffic Lights Using Reinforcement Learning

Abstract

Traffic signal control plays a crucial role in traffic management and operation practices. In the past decade, adaptive signal control systems, capable of adjusting control schemes in response to traffic patterns, have shown the abilities to improve traffic mobility. On the other hand, the negative impacts on environments by increased vehicles attract increased attentions from traffic stakeholders and the general public. Most of the prevalent adaptive signal control systems do not address energy and environmental issues. The present paper proposes an adaptive signal control system capable of taking multi-criteria strategies into account. A general multi-agent framework is introduced for modeling signal control operations. The behavior of each cognitive agent is modeled by a Constrained Markov Decision Process (CMDP). Reinforcement learning algorithms are applied to solve the MDP problem. As a result, the signal controller makes intelligent timing decisions according to a pre-defined policy goal. A case study is carried out for the stage-based control scheme to investigate the effectiveness of the adaptive signal control system from two perspectives, traffic mobility and energy efficiency. The control approach can be further applied to a large network in a decentralized manner.