How to Plan Roadworks in Urban Regions? A Principled Approach Based on AI Planning

Abstract

0000−0002−8429−3570] , Lukáš Chrpa 2,3[0000−0001−9713−7748] , and Diane Kitchin 1[0000−0001−6614−4750]Abstract. Roadworks are required to keep roads in acceptable condition, and to perform maintenance of essential infrastructure. Road agencies are facing the problem of how to effectively plan frequent roadworks. In this paper, we exploit Automated Planning for roadworks planning. We introduce a planning domain model that allows us to plan a set of required roadworks, over a period of time, in a large urban region, by specifying constraints to be satisfied and suitable quality metrics. Our empirical analysis shows the suitability of the proposed approach.

A Mixed-Integer Programming Approach for Scheduling Roadworks in Urban Regions

“…When comparing the approach introduced in this paper with the preliminary work on using AI Planning for dealing with roadworks scheduling [14,8], it was possible to make a number of observations. In terms of quality of the generated schedules, measured as the average delay of planned roadworks with regards to the earliest possible start date, MIP-based approaches tend to provide consistently good solutions; Planning-based techniques instead show a very high variability, making virtually impossible to estimate whether using the approach will be beneficial or not.…”

“…4 Despite the pressing need for efficiency, and the large body of works for optimising problems and situations daily faced by traffic controllers, there is a lack of approaches designed for supporting agencies in the decision process of creating a plan of roadworks for a controlled urban area. Beside a very recent preliminary exploration of the use of AI planning for planning roadworks [14], the body of existing works in the area is focused on providing formal frameworks for the analysis of the impact of works [6], or on the evaluation of the process exploited by local authorities [7]. For this reason, roadwork plans are usually generated manually, without any explicit notion of "quality", and with a very limited control on constraints and assessment of the impact of works on the managed network traffic, as highlighted by the above-mentioned Manchester example.…”