Knapsack problem-based control approach for traffic signal management at urban intersections: Increasing smooth traffic flows and reducing environmental impact

Urbanism development makes cities more congested and then more polluted. Hence, the primary factor that influences the urban environment directly is traffic flow. Therefore, this complex system requires efficient control methods to reduce its impact at urban zones, in particular for traffic light within intersections. In this paper, a dynamic control strategy of traffic signal at urban intersections is proposed. This strategy is based on Knapsack-problem and enables to manage the green light duration autonomously following the queue length for each road lane. The dynamic behavior of this system is considered as a discrete event system. Consequently, a modular Timed Synchronized Petri Net (TSPN) model is developed. Depending on real-time communication, the TSPN modules represent the "slaves", and the responsive controller represents the "master" that manage optimally the vehicles evacuation at the intersection. Moreover, for the system dependability, some interesting properties of the system are checked through the developed Petri net model. SUMO based simulations are performed and analyzed to validate the proposed approach. Through the performed simulations and the analysis of the proposed dynamic control approach and findings show the efficiency of our control policy about smooth traffic increasing and environmental impact reducing.