Efficient MILP-based Urban Network Traffic Control in Mixed Autonomy with Dynamic Saturation Rates

TL;DR

This paper presents a new MILP-based control strategy for urban traffic networks with mixed autonomy, incorporating dynamic saturation rates to improve real-time traffic management involving CAVs and HDVs.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamic, queue-responsive saturation rate and an MILP formulation for optimized routing and signal control in mixed autonomy traffic networks.

Findings

Outperforms existing multi-commodity models in simulations.

Demonstrates robustness and efficiency in real-time traffic optimization.

Validates approach with microscopic simulation results.

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel control strategy to optimize urban network traffic in mixed autonomy settings, featuring Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) alongside Human-Driven Vehicles (HDVs). Unlike previous control strategies, where the impact of driver behaviour of CAVs and HDVs is not explicitly considered, we propose a dynamic, queue-responsive saturation rate to account for autonomy-driven variations in traffic flow characteristics. The proposed method is based on an extended multi-commodity store-and-forward model to a mixed autonomy environment, integrating optimized routing for CAVs via infrastructure-linked connectivity, and signal timings at every signalized intersection. The problem is formulated as a Non-Convex Quadratic Program (NQP), which accounts for queue evolution, spillback, green time allocation, and CAVs routing. To enable computational efficiency for real-time applications, we transform the NQP into a sequence of convex subproblems, leveraging under- and over-estimators to reformulate it as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP). Experimental results via microscopic simulations validate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed methodology. The results reflect that the proposed model outperforms the existing multi-commodity approach, thus demonstrating its potential for real-time traffic optimization in future urban mobility systems.