Test Bed for Multiagent Control Systems in Road Traffic Management

Abstract

In this paper we present a test bed for multiagent control systems in road traffic management. As the complexity of traffic control on a network grows it becomes more difficult to coordinate the actions of the large number of heterogeneous traffic management instruments that are available in the network. One way of handling this complexity is to divide the coordination problem into smaller coherent subproblems that can be solved with a minimum of interaction. Multiagent systems can aid in the distribution of the problem (over the various agents that comprise the multiagent system) and facilitate the coordination of the activities of these agents when required. In the literature no consensus exists about the best configuration of the traffic managing multiagent system and how the activities of the agents that comprise the multiagent system should be coordinated. The decomposition of a problem into various subproblems is an active field of research in the world of distributed artificial intelligence. This paper starts out with a survey of the approaches as they are reported in the literature. Subsequently the test bed is introduced and the modules it is comprised of. Finally an application is presented that illustrates some of the research the test bed has made possible.

Model-based Control of Intelligent Traffic Networks

“…The MPC-based traffic control approach presented in this paper can be extended in various directions. One important topic is the issue of scalability and computational complexity, which could be addressed using a distributed, hierarchical, or multi-agent approach [47,55,56]. Other issues include the further development of fast, but accurate traffic flow and emission models for large-scale traffic networks.…”

“…The subnetworks should be chosen such that the interaction between them is as small as possible. To handle the remaining interactions (e.g., occasionally overflowing queues) adequately, structures such as hierarchical control or agent-based control can be used (see [47,55,56]). …”

Computational Intelligence in Highway Management: A Review

“…Concepts from the domain of agent and multi-agent systems were used for description of the traffic management instruments which were employed in the examples. In the next phase of the project, the authors wanted to validate their ideas in a laboratory environment [46].…”

“…Katwijk et al [46] present a test-bed for multi-agent control systems in road traffic management. The testbed aids in-depth research in this field.…”

“…The main contribution of [46] to the research in the field of road traffic management is the development of a software environment for rapid development of multi-agent control systems.…”