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A Multiagent Approach to Modeling Autonomic Road Transport Support Systems

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Autonomic Road Transport Support Systems

Abstract

In this chapter, we investigate a multiagent based approach to modeling autonomic features in urban traffic management. We provide a conceptual model of a traffic system comprising traffic participants modeled as locally autonomous agents, which act to optimize their operational and tactical decisions (e.g., route choice), and traffic management center(s) (TMC) which influence the traffic system according to dynamically selected policies. In this chapter, we focus on two autonomic features which emerge from the local decisions and actions of traffic participants and their interaction with the TMC and other vehicles: (1) Autonomic routing, in which we study how vehicle agents can individually adapt routing decisions based on local learning capabilities and traffic information communicated truthfully by a traffic management center; and (2) Autonomic grouping, i.e., collective decision-making of vehicles, which exchange route information and dynamically form and operate groups to drive in a convoy, thus aiming at higher speed and increased throughput. Communication is based on a (simulated) vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) protocols. Initial experiments are reported using a real-world traffic scenario modeled in the Aimsun software, which is extended by the decision logic of TMC and vehicles. The experiments indicate that autonomic routing and grouping can improve the performance of a traffic management network, even though negative effects such as unstable behavior can be observed in some cases.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We refer to the introductory chapter of this book for a discussion of the core terminology and concepts of autonomics and autonomic traffic management.

  2. 2.

    By this we mean that the TMC does not communicate information strategically, but to the best of its knowledge.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jan F. Ehmke, Markus Fidler, Daniel Schmidt, and Henrik Schumacher who were also members of the PLANETS project and contributed to the mentioned results as well as Jelena Fiosina for useful discussions.

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Correspondence to Maksims Fiosins .

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Fiosins, M., Friedrich, B., Görmer, J., Mattfeld, D., Müller, J.P., Tchouankem, H. (2016). A Multiagent Approach to Modeling Autonomic Road Transport Support Systems. In: McCluskey, T., Kotsialos, A., Müller, J., Klügl, F., Rana, O., Schumann, R. (eds) Autonomic Road Transport Support Systems. Autonomic Systems. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25808-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25808-9_5

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