Distributed multi-agent type-2 fuzzy architecture for urban traffic signal control

Rapid advances made in vehicle technology and increased level of urbanization have caused an exponential increase in road traffic congestion levels. This has necessitated the implementation of intelligent traffic responsive signal controllers capable of maintaining the saturation levels in each link thereby reducing congestion and increasing utilization of existing infrastructure. This paper presents one such distributed multi-agent architecture based on weighted type-2 fuzzy inference engine for the urban traffic signal control. Agents have been programmed in PARAMICS microscopic traffic simulator and tested on a simulated section of Central Business District in Singapore with twenty five interconnected intersections. A comparative analysis of the proposed architecture with the existing traffic signal controller HMS - Hierarchical multi-agent system, was performed for two different traffic scenarios. The results clearly indicates better performance of the proposed agent architecture over the benchmark controller and offers scope for improvement in the future.