Towards urban traffic regulation using a multi-agent system

Abstract

This paper proposes a bimodal urban traffic control strategy based on a multi-agent model. We call bimodal traffic a traffic which takes into account private vehicles and public transport vehicles such as buses. The objective of this research is to improve global traffic and reduce the time spent by buses in traffic jams so that buses cope with their schedule. Reducing bus delays is done by studying time length of traffic lights and giving priority to buses, more precisely to buses running late. Regulation is obtained thanks to communication, collaboration and negotiation between the agents of the system. The implementation was done using the JADE platform. We tested our strategy on a small network of six junctions. The first results of the simulation are presented. They show that our MAS control strategy improves both bus traffic and private vehicle traffic, decreases bus delays and improves its regularity compared to a classical strategy called fixed-time control. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.