MPC-Based Coordinated Control Design for Look-Ahead Vehicles and Traffic Flow

The paper proposes a control design method for the coordination of a macroscopic traffic system and individual vehicles. Some of the vehicles are equipped with a look-ahead control system, with which energy-efficient traveling can be achieved. In a mixed traffic system vehicles equipped with look-ahead control and conventional uncontrolled vehicles are traveling together. The traffic system is assumed to have ramp metering control, which has a significant effect on the inflow on the highway. The purposes of the coordinated control are to improve the energy efficiency of the entire traffic flow and simultaneously stabilize the controlled highway, reduce the queue length at the controlled gates and avoid congestion. The design is based on the MPC method, with which the prediction of the traffic flow is also taken into consideration. The efficiency of the method is illustrated through VISSIM simulation examples.