A Polynomial-time Decentralised Algorithm for Coordinated Management of Multiple Intersections

TL;DR

This paper introduces a polynomial-time decentralized algorithm for coordinating multiple intersections, significantly reducing traffic delays and improving traffic flow efficiency through a distributed constraint optimization approach.

Contribution

It presents a novel polynomial-time algorithm for multi-intersection coordination formulated as a DCOP, balancing efficiency and fairness.

Findings

Reduces traffic delay by about 41% compared to independent management.

Formulates intersection coordination as a distributed constraint optimization problem.

Provides three utility design approaches for efficiency and fairness trade-offs.

Abstract

Autonomous intersection management has the potential to reduce road traffic congestion and energy consumption. To realize this potential, efficient algorithms are needed. However, most existing studies locally optimize one intersection at a time, and this can cause negative externalities on the traffic network as a whole. Here, we focus on coordinating multiple intersections, and formulate the problem as a distributed constraint optimisation problem (DCOP). We consider three utility design approaches that trade off efficiency and fairness. Our polynomial-time algorithm for coordinating multiple intersections reduces the traffic delay by about 41% compared to independent single intersection management approaches.