Traffic Flow Control at Signalized Intersections using Signal Spatio-Temporal Logic

This work investigates traffic signal optimization to improve mobility and safety of traffic flow at signalized intersections. The existing pre-timed and actuated control techniques are incapable of optimally using traffic data in achieving congestion-free traffic flow. To overcome this limitation, we propose a model predictive control (MPC) with the signal spatio-temporal logic (SSTL) from formal methods to utilize traffic data. For this, we construct a cell transmission traffic model and describe traffic mobility and safety specifications using SSTL. Then to optimize traffic signal timings in this setting, we formulate an optimization problem with an objective to minimize traffic congestion subject to constraints given as SSTL specifications. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the traffic flow control using MPC with SSTL.