Optimization driven cellular automata for traffic flow prediction at signalized intersections

The traffic flow prediction using cellular automata (CA) is a trendy research domain that identified the potential of CA in modelling the traffic flow. CA is a technique, which utilizes the basic units for describing the overall behaviour of complicated systems. The CA model poses a benefit for defining the characteristics of traffic flow. This paper proposes a modified CA model to reveal the prediction of traffic flows at the signalised intersection. Based on the CA model, the traffic density and the average speed are computed for studying the characteristics and spatial evolution of traffic flow in signalised intersection. Moreover, a CA model with a self-organizing traffic signal system is devised by proposing a new optimization model for controlling the traffic rules. The Sunflower Cat Optimization (SCO) algorithm is employed for efficiently predicting traffic. The SCO is designed by integrating the Sunflower optimization algorithm (SFO) and Cat swarm optimization (CSO) algorithm. Also, the fitness function is devised, which helps to guide the control rules evaluated by traffic simulation using the CA model. Thus, the cellular automaton is optimized using the SCO algorithm for predicting the traffic flows. The proposed Sunflower Cat Optimization-based cellular automata (SCO-CA) outperformed other methods with minimal travel time, distance, average traffic density, and maximal average speed.