2 research outputs found
A genetic programming system with an epigenetic mechanism for traffic signal control
Traffic congestion is an increasing problem in most cities around the world. It
impacts businesses as well as commuters, small cities and large ones in developing
as well as developed economies. One approach to decrease urban traffic congestion
is to optimize the traffic signal behaviour in order to be adaptive to changes in the
traffic conditions. From the perspective of intelligent transportation systems, this
optimization problem is called the traffic signal control problem and is considered
a large combinatorial problem with high complexity and uncertainty.
A novel approach to the traffic signal control problem is proposed in this thesis.
The approach includes a new mechanism for Genetic Programming inspired by
Epigenetics. Epigenetic mechanisms play an important role in biological processes
such as phenotype differentiation, memory consolidation within generations and
environmentally induced epigenetic modification of behaviour. These properties
lead us to consider the implementation of epigenetic mechanisms as a way to
improve the performance of Evolutionary Algorithms in solution to real-world
problems with dynamic environmental changes, such as the traffic control signal
problem.
The epigenetic mechanism proposed was evaluated in four traffic scenarios with
different properties and traffic conditions using two microscopic simulators. The
results of these experiments indicate that Genetic Programming was able to generate
competitive actuated traffic signal controllers for all the scenarios tested.
Furthermore, the use of the epigenetic mechanism improved the performance of
Genetic Programming in all the scenarios. The evolved controllers adapt to modifications
in the traffic density and require less monitoring and less human interaction
than other solutions because they dynamically adjust the signal behaviour
depending on the local traffic conditions at each intersection