UROP Public Presentation: A Vision for Testing Traffic Signal Control Algorithms

Abstract

Traffic signal controllers (TSCs) are systems that coordinate the traffic lights at intersections. The traffic signal control algorithms (TSCAs) regulating TSCs are configured to minimize the time waited by vehicles at intersections. However, if misconfigured, TSCAs can cause issues such as traffic jams, unnecessary pollution, and increase in drivers’ frustration. Traditionally, traffic engineers configure TSCAs based on observed or expected traffic demands. The available observations and the knowledge about expected traffic demands can be limited, and, therefore, TSCAs can behave poorly when demands deviate from the configuration-time assumptions. This poster presents our vision for a systematic approach to validate traffic signal controller algorithms (or their generated configurations) via automated testing. Realizing our vision is far from trivial. TSCAs operate in networks of interconnected intersections that influence each other and make use of analytic approaches impractical. Consequently, testing TSCAs requires using traffic simulations, which are time consuming and difficult to configure manually. The simulated traffic must be feasible and realistic to be valuable to traffic engineers.