Deep Reinforcement Learning for Intersection Signal Control Considering Pedestrian Behavior

Using deep reinforcement learning to solve traffic signal control problems is a research hotspot in the intelligent transportation field. Researchers have recently proposed various solutions based on deep reinforcement learning methods for intelligent transportation problems. However, most signal control optimization takes the maximization of traffic capacity as the optimization goal, ignoring the concerns of pedestrians at intersections. To address this issue, we propose a pedestrian-considered deep reinforcement learning traffic signal control method. The method combines a reinforcement learning network and traffic signal control strategy with traffic efficiency and safety aspects. At the same time, the waiting time of pedestrians and vehicles passing through the intersection is considered, and the Discrete Traffic State Encoding (DTSE) method is applied and improved to define the more comprehensive states and rewards. In the training of the neural network, the multi-process operation method is adopted, and multiple environments are run for training simultaneously to improve the model's training efficiency. Finally, extensive simulation experiments are conducted on actual intersection scenarios using the simulation software Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO). The results show that compared to Dueling DQN, the waiting time due to our method decreased by 58.76% and the number of people waiting decreased by 51.54%. The proposed method can reduce both the number of people waiting and the waiting time at intersections.