Modeling, simulation, and optimization of traffic intersections using petri nets

Abstract

With the increasing number of vehicles on the road and the amount of time people spend driving their vehicles, traffic control and management has become an important part within logistics. Effective traffic control would involve traffic signal control and control over vehicle movement. Since Petri nets are versatile enough to represent traffic signals and traffic flow, it has become an important tool in urban traffic control. Many traffic systems are modeled using hybrid Petri nets. Chapter 1 briefly talks about traffic management systems and previous related work in the area of traffic control. Chapter 2 is a basic background on various Petri nets used in the study. The section also uses examples to demonstrate the working of Petri nets. Chapter 3 introduces the need for optimization in various industry. And then, it discusses different steps involved in optimizing a process. Chapter 4 discusses the existing model of two one-way intersection. In an effort to understand the model better, simulations are also carried out. Then, drawbacks of the existing model are discussed. This paves way for a new, improved, and realistic version of two one-way intersection. Various optimization steps discussed in Chapter 3 is used to optimize traffic light of the improved model. And then, a comparison between existing model and improved model is carried out. Chapter 5 expands the study of traffic models by connecting two different one-way intersection through a road (thus making it a network). Optimization and simulation of the connected-intersection model is also carried out. Chapter 6 is the summary which will provide a brief overview about each chapter.