Arterial traffic signal optimization using Particle Swarm Optimization in an integrated VISSIM MATLAB simulation environment
Today, a wide range of commercial signal optimization tools have been developed for optimizing traffic signal timing plans. However, incapability of such programs to consider the stochastic variations in traffic conditions calls for integrating optimization techniques with a microscopic simulation environment. In this study, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is used as an optimizer for generating arterial traffic signal timing parameters. VISSIM, a microscopic simulator, is used as the evaluation platform for calculating performance measures of the traffic arterial operated by those timing plans. Such an advanced simulation is handled through VISSIM COM interface and implemented in MATLAB. The potentiality of the proposed method is investigated by applying it on a real world arterial. Comparing the performance of generated timing plans by the proposed method with timing plans yielded by VISTRO, a widely used signal optimization tool, reveals that the proposed method is promising and outperforms for various traffic states.
2016 IEEE 19th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC)