Decentralized Traffic Management: A Synchronization-Based Intersection Control

Controlling the vehicle traffic in large networks remains an important challenge in urban environments and transportation systems. Autonomous vehicles are today considered as a promising approach to deal with traffic control. In this paper, we propose a synchronization-based intersection control mechanism to allow the autonomous vehicle-agents to cross without stopping, i.e., in order to avoid congestions (delays) and energy loss. We decentralize the problem by managing the traffic of each intersection independently from others. We define control agents which are able to synchronize the multiple flows of vehicles in each intersection, by alternating vehicles from both directions. We present experimental results in simulation, which allow to evaluate the approach and to compare it with a traffic light strategy. These results show the important gain in terms of time and energy at an intersection and in a network.