Mathematical proof of effectiveness of platoon-based traffic control at intersections

It was found that the platoon-based algorithm provides better performance at intersections than the conventional signal timing algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, researches have not proved formally the effects of platoon-based algorithm on the traffic control. In this paper, a Petri Nets model is proposed to describe the traffic behavior at intersections. Then based on the structure analysis of the model, it is proved that in order to minimize the total queue length at any time, the platoon should not be interrupted as far as possible. According to the result, a simple traffic control algorithm is proposed for cooperative driving at intersections. Further, through computer simulations, it is shown that the platoon-based algorithm outperforms other traffic control strategies.