Design and simulation of a fuzzy controller for a busy intersection

Abstract

Traffic in large cities is one of the biggest problems that can lead to excess utilization of fuel by motor vehicles, accidents, and the waste of time of citizens. To have an effective and efficient city management system, it is necessary to intelligently control all the traffic light signals. For this reason, many researchers have tried to present optimal algorithms for traffic signal control. Some common methods exist for the control of traffic light signal, including the preset cycle time controller and vehicle-actuated controller. Results obtained from previous works indicate that these traffic light signal controllers do not exhibit an effective performance at moments of traffic peak. So to resolve this dilemma at such moments, traffic cops are employed. The application of fuzzy logic in traffic signal controllers has been seriously considered for several decades and many research works have been carried out in this regard. The fuzzy signal controllers perform the optimization task by minimizing the waiting time of the vehicles and maximizing the traffic capacity. A new fuzzy logic based algorithm is proposed in this article, which not only can reduce the waiting time and the number of vehicles behind a traffic light and at an intersection, but can consider the traffic situations at adjacent intersections as well. Finally, a comparison is made between the designed fuzzy controller and the preset cycle time controller.