Multilayer control system design applied to freeway traffic

After a qualitative discussion of properties of on-line control schemes, such as closed-loop, open-loop and two-stage approach, for large-scale nonlinear plants, a multilayer structure is proposed for on-line control of nonlinear plants with measurable slow disturbances leading to good control performance even under occurrence of unexpected disturbances. The multilayer structure is applied to the freeway traffic control problem. Simulation results show the superiority of the resulting control actions compared to previous solutions.