Physics Informed Multi-task Joint Generative Learning for Arterial Vehicle Trajectory Reconstruction Considering Lane Changing Behavior

TL;DR

This paper introduces a physics-informed multi-task generative framework combining GANs to reconstruct complete vehicle trajectories at arterial intersections, effectively modeling lane-changing and car-following behaviors from limited data.

Contribution

It presents a novel multi-task GAN-based framework that jointly models lane-changing and car-following behaviors, improving trajectory reconstruction with minimal observed data.

Findings

Outperforms benchmark models in trajectory reconstruction accuracy.

Effectively models lane-changing behavior considering physical intersection conditions.

Requires only a small subset of vehicle trajectories for accurate reconstruction.

Abstract

Reconstructing complete traffic flow time-space diagrams from vehicle trajectories offer a comprehensive view on traffic dynamics at arterial intersections. However, obtaining full trajectories across networks is costly, and accurately inferring lane-changing (LC) and car-following behaviors in multi-lane environments remains challenging. This study proposes a generative framework for arterial vehicle trajectory reconstruction that jointly models lane-changing and car-following behaviors through physics-informed multi-task joint learning. The framework consists of a Lane-Change Generative Adversarial Network (LC-GAN) and a Trajectory-GAN. The LC-GAN models stochastic LC behavior from historical trajectories while considering physical conditions of arterial intersections, such as signal control, geometric configuration, and interactions with surrounding vehicles. The Trajectory-GAN then incorporates LC information from the LC-GAN with initial trajectories generated from physics-based car-following models, refining them in a data-driven manner to adapt to dynamic traffic conditions. The proposed framework is designed to reconstruct complete trajectories from only a small subset of connected vehicle (CV) trajectories; for example, even a single observed trajectory per lane, by incorporating partial trajectory information into the generative process. A multi-task joint learning facilitates synergistic interaction between the LC-GAN and Trajectory-GAN, allowing each component to serves as both auxiliary supervision and a physical condition for the other. Validation using two real-world trajectory datasets demonstrates that the framework outperforms conventional benchmark models in reconstructing complete time-space diagrams for multi-lane arterial intersections. This research advances the integration of trajectory-based sensing from CVs with physics-informed deep learning.