Chapter

Multi-Agent Systems and Applications V

Volume 4696 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science pp 163-172

Governing Environments for Agent-Based Traffic Simulations

  • Michael SchumacherAffiliated withUniversity of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Institute of Business Information Systems, CH-3960 Sierre
  • , Laurent GrangierAffiliated withEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, CH-1015 Lausanne
  • , Radu JurcaAffiliated withEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, CH-1015 Lausanne

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Abstract

Multiagent systems may be elegantly modeled and designed by enhancing the role of the environment in which agents evolve. In particular, the environment may have the role of a governing infrastructure that regulates with laws or norms the actions taken by the agents. The focus of modeling and design is thus shifted from a subjective view of agents towards a more objective view of the whole multiagent system. In this paper, we apply the idea of a governing environment to model and design a multi-agent system that micro-simulates the Swiss highway network. The goal of the simulation is to show how traffic jams and accordion phenomena may be handled with appropriate local regulations on speed limits. A natural modeling would give segments the capacity to regulate the speed based on observed local events. We developed the simulation platform from scratch in order to accommodate our design choices and a realistic complexity. This paper presents in details our modeling choices, and first experimental results.