Goals / Ideas of the Project Organic Traffic Control Collaborative (OTC²)

Organic Traffic Control Collaborative (OTC²) aims at the realisation of an organic traffic control system capable of controlling and optimising traffic signals in urban road networks. In the predecessor project OTC an architecture for an adaptive learning node controller has been developed. This architecture is to be extended to allow for collaboration among the node controllers, which is a prerequisite for a network-wide optimisation. Hierarchically organised and completely decentralised approaches to the control problem will be considered. In the hierarchical approach, an additional layer of observer/controller components is responsible for coordination among the node controllers. Each additional observer/controller component is responsible for a sub-area, collecting data on the traffic situation and influencing the node controllers accordingly. In the completely decentralised approach, node controllers collaborate locally by exchanging information with their neighbours to achieve a network-wide optimisation. Both approaches will be tested and examined. Possibilities for a fusion of both will be considered. The combination of decentralised control pursuing fine-grained goals with higherlevel observation and control having a more abstract point of view is expected to be applicable to a broad range of problems worked on in the Organic Computing community.