3,997 research outputs found
Particle filter state estimator for large urban networks
This paper applies a particle filter (PF) state estimator to urban traffic networks. The traffic network consists of signalized intersections, the roads that link these intersections, and sensors that detect the passage time of vehicles. The traffic state X(t) specifies at each time time t the state of the traffic lights, the queue sizes at the intersections, and the location and size of all the platoons of vehicles inside the system. The basic entity of our model is a platoon of vehicles that travel close together at approximately the same speed. This leads to a discrete event simulation model that is much faster than microscopic models representing individual vehicles. Hence it is possible to execute many random simulation runs in parallel. A particle filter (PF) assigns weights to each of these simulation runs, according to how well they explain the observed sensor signals. The PF thus generates estimates at each time t of the location of the platoons, and more importantly the queue size at each intersection. These estimates can be used for controlling the optimal switching times of the traffic light
Parameter estimation for stochastic hybrid model applied to urban traffic flow estimation
This study proposes a novel data-based approach for estimating the parameters of a stochastic hybrid model describing the traffic flow in an urban traffic network with signalized intersections. The model represents the evolution of the traffic flow rate, measuring the number of vehicles passing a given location per time unit. This traffic flow rate is described using a mode-dependent first-order autoregressive (AR) stochastic process. The parameters of the AR process take different values depending on the mode of traffic operation – free flowing, congested or faulty – making this a hybrid stochastic process. Mode switching occurs according to a first-order Markov chain. This study proposes an expectation-maximization (EM) technique for estimating the transition matrix of this Markovian mode process and the parameters of the AR models for each mode. The technique is applied to actual traffic flow data from the city of Jakarta, Indonesia. The model thus obtained is validated by using the smoothed inference algorithms and an online particle filter. The authors also develop an EM parameter estimation that, in combination with a time-window shift technique, can be useful and practical for periodically updating the parameters of hybrid model leading to an adaptive traffic flow state estimator
Neural-Attention-Based Deep Learning Architectures for Modeling Traffic Dynamics on Lane Graphs
Deep neural networks can be powerful tools, but require careful
application-specific design to ensure that the most informative relationships
in the data are learnable. In this paper, we apply deep neural networks to the
nonlinear spatiotemporal physics problem of vehicle traffic dynamics. We
consider problems of estimating macroscopic quantities (e.g., the queue at an
intersection) at a lane level. First-principles modeling at the lane scale has
been a challenge due to complexities in modeling social behaviors like lane
changes, and those behaviors' resultant macro-scale effects. Following domain
knowledge that upstream/downstream lanes and neighboring lanes affect each
others' traffic flows in distinct ways, we apply a form of neural attention
that allows the neural network layers to aggregate information from different
lanes in different manners. Using a microscopic traffic simulator as a testbed,
we obtain results showing that an attentional neural network model can use
information from nearby lanes to improve predictions, and, that explicitly
encoding the lane-to-lane relationship types significantly improves
performance. We also demonstrate the transfer of our learned neural network to
a more complex road network, discuss how its performance degradation may be
attributable to new traffic behaviors induced by increased topological
complexity, and motivate learning dynamics models from many road network
topologies.Comment: To appear at 2019 IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation
System
Objectives, stimulus and feedback in signal control of road traffic
This article identifies the prospective role of a range of intelligent transport systems technologies for the signal control of road traffic. We discuss signal control within the context of traffic management and control in urban road networks and then present a control-theoretic formulation for it that distinguishes the various roles of detector data, objectives of optimization, and control feedback. By reference to this, we discuss the importance of different kinds of variability in traffic flows and review the state of knowledge in respect of control in the presence of different combinations of them. In light of this formulation and review, we identify a range of important possibilities for contributions to traffic management and control through traffic measurement and detection technology, and contemporary flexible optimization techniques that use various kinds of automated learning
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