Optimal Urban Traffic Model Predictive Control for NEMA Standards

Abstract

Green splits are one of the three important types of control parameter in a modern traffic controller. Few studies have been done on coordinated optimal splits control under the National Electrical Manufacturing Association (NEMA) Standards. We proposed a virtual phase-link concept and used this concept to model urban traffic control under the NEMA Standards. We framed the coordinated optimal splits control problem as a linear quadratic programming problem and implemented the optimal feedback control with model predictive control. The outputs of the solution are timing plans that can be used in NEMA controllers. We conducted microscopic simulation studies to compare timing plans generated from the proposed method with those generated from a state-of-the-practice signal timing software. It was found that the proposed method significantly outperformed the benchmarking method under semi-actuated control settings. The evaluation of the optimization algorithm shows that the optimization process can be performed in a real-time manner, indicating that the proposed method can be implemented for large-scale urban traffic optimal splits control.