CAREER: Feedback Based Robust On-Line Traffic Control for Intelligent Transportation Systems

尽管对智能交通系统（ITS）的投资和兴趣呈指数级增长，但能够有效利用智能交通系统基础设施的强大实时在线交通控制策略尚不存在。数学控制理论领域的最新进展，加上实时交通数据的可用性，为开发和实施鲁棒交通响应实时反馈控制模型和策略提供了重大机会。这个综合研究和教育项目有以下目标：基于反馈的在线交通控制策略的开发，可用于在经常性和非经常性拥堵期间的实时交通管理。以往在交通控制领域的研究主要集中在使用基于仿真/优化的方法。然而，由于这些传统模型的计算成本非常高，并且对实时交通控制系统的鲁棒性要求很高，因此它们并不普遍适用于实时系统。使用反馈控制设计方法，可以利用交通传感器收集的实时数据，与ITS的要求完全匹配，因为反馈模型能够实时响应系统与其期望行为的偏差。开发互联网上的虚拟交互交通仿真控制（VITSI）工具箱，并使用实时交通数据进行实验室测试和验证。VITSI工具箱将使用多种编程语言进行开发，包括C/ c++和JAVA，具体取决于待开发模块的计算需求。开发VITSI的目标是为研究人员和学生提供一个灵活和专业的交通模拟和控制设计工具集，他们可以使用它来开发、测试和验证不同的实时交通控制策略。罗格斯大学智能交通（RITS）实验室与VITSI工具箱结合获取的在线交通数据也将用于测试和验证开发的模型。这种实时交通数据将主要从新泽西州的ITS设施获得。在最近成立的罗格斯大学智能交通系统（RITS）实验室中，通过使用拟议的VITSI工具箱和交通数据采集和处理能力，将拟议的研究活动的结果引入本科和研究生水平的交通控制课程。随着智能交通系统的出现，在线交通控制的设计、测试和实现已成为交通工程中快速发展的领域之一。然而，反馈控制技术尚未被有效地引入交通工程教育课程。该研究项目将设计一个综合的跨学科研究教育计划，将反馈控制技术纳入研究生和本科生的交通工程课程。在教育工作的核心，将使用VITSI工具箱概念，结合RITS实验室的在线交通数据采集和处理能力。VITSI工具箱将专门设计用于鼓励使用基于互联网的动手工具进行有效的教学，学习和研究活动，并将补充RITS作为目前不存在的新的研究和教育工具。

PROJECT SUMMARYAlthough the investment and the interest in Intelligent Transportation Systems(ITS) is growing exponentially, robust real-time on-line traffic controlstrategies that can effectively use this ITS infrastructure do not exist yet.Recent advances in the area of mathematical control theory coupled with theavailability of real-time traffic data present major opportunities for thedevelopment and implementation of robust traffic responsive real-time feedbackcontrol models and strategies. This integrated research and education projecthas the following objectives:1. Development of feedback based on-line traffic control strategies that can beused for real-time traffic management during recurrent and non-recurrentcongestion.Previous research in the area of traffic control mostly focused on the use ofsimulation / optimization based approaches. However, these traditional modelsare not generally applicable to real-time systems due to their very highcomputational costs and robustness requirements of real-time traffic controlsystems. The use of the feedback control design methodologies that can make useof real-time data collected by traffic sensors, constitutes an exact match withthe requirements of ITS, due to the capability of feedback models to respond inreal-time to the deviations of the system from its desired behavior.2. Development of Virtual Interactive Traffic Simulation control on the Internet(VITSI) toolbox and use of real-time traffic data for laboratory testing andvalidation.VITSI toolbox will be developed using several programming languages includingC/C++ and JAVA depending upon the computational requirements of the modules tobe developed. The goal for developing VITSI is to provide researchers andstudents with a flexible and specialized traffic simulation and control designtool set they can use for the development, testing and validation of differentreal-time traffic control strategies. On-line traffic data acquired by RutgersIntelligent Transportation (RITS) laboratory coupled with VITSI toolbox willalso be used to test and validate developed models. This real-time traffic datawill be mainly obtained from ITS facilities in New Jersey.3. Introduction of the results of the proposed research activities into theundergraduate and graduate level traffic control courses through the use of theproposed VITSI toolbox and traffic data acquisition and processing capabilitiesat the recently established Rutgers Intelligent Transportation Systems (RITS)laboratory.With the advent of ITS, on-line traffic control design, testing, andimplementation has become one of the fast growing areas of traffic engineering.However, feedback control techniques have not yet been effectively introducedinto the traffic engineering education programs. This research project willdesign an integrated interdisciplinary research-education program that willincorporate feedback control techniques into both graduate and undergraduatetraffic engineering classes. At the heart of the education efforts, there willbe the use of VITSI toolbox concept coupled with the on-line traffic dataacquisition and processing capabilities of the RITS laboratory. VITSI toolboxwill be specifically designed to encourage the use of Internet based hands-ontools for effective teaching, learning, and research activities, and willcomplement RITS as a new research and education tool that does not currentlyexist.