Performance Measures for Adaptive Signal Control: Case Study of System-in-the-Loop Simulation

• Published in: Transportation research record 2012-01, Vol.2311 (1), p.1-15
• Main Authors: Day, Christopher M., Ernst, Joseph M., Brennan, Thomas M., Chou, Chih-Sheng, Hainen, Alexander M., Remias, Stephen M., Nichols, Andrew, Griggs, Brian D., Bullock, Darcy M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0361-1981; 2169-4052
• DOI: 10.3141/2311-01

The simulation of local signal controllers has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years and has been paralleled by improvements in the integration of adaptive systems into simulation. This paper describes and demonstrates an emerging methodology for the evaluation of adaptive signal control that is termed “system-in-the-loop simulation.” This methodology extends existing software-in-the-loop simulation by linking virtualized traffic controllers with real-world adaptive-control systems. In addition, the authors propose an analysis methodology that fuses data on simulated probe vehicles with data on high-resolution controller events. Through this data fusion, traditional measures of simulation performance such as delay can be enhanced with operational measures of performance that characterize quality of progression and capacity utilization. In addition, adaptive-control performance can be characterized in relation to overall impact on traveler delay and also described in terms that are meaningful for improvement of control schemes. An example case study is presented: the ACS-Lite adaptive system was tested on a 19-intersection system in Morgantown, West Virginia, under a special-event scenario. Free, fully actuated control was compared with traditional time-of-day and traffic-responsive control both with and without the use of the adaptive-control system ACS-Lite. Overall delay results are presented and contrasted with more detailed analysis of event-based performance measures at a single intersection and on a networkwide basis.