Online Micro Modelling Using Proprietary Controllers and SUMO

Abstract

Over the past years the open source traffic simulator SUMO has been significantly improved and extended. One of the most important elements of urban traffic simulation is the proper handling of traffic light control. Currently available are elementary control methods like embedded fixed time and actuated control, but also controllers external to SUMO that use SUMO’s extensive TraCI interface that enables reading and changing of many simulation parameters. This interface, however, has as yet not been used to link to proprietary controllers, which would enable the use of SUMO for accurate studies in a multivendor environment. Moreover, the TraCI interface accepts the injection of vehicles from external sources during the simulation. This opens up possibilities for using real-world sensor data directly in the simulation environment. This paper describes how state-of-the-art Imtech controllers are linked to SUMO. The paper covers topics like architecture, vehicle detection, signal group control, simulation speed optimization and contains a comparison of the SUMO simulation to the commercial Vissim simulator for an identical scenario. The last section of this paper introduces embedded real-time micro simulation as part of the control environment, which was able to approach.