Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Traffic Flow Management of Autonomous Vehicles

Intelligent traffic management systems have become one of the main applications of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). There is a growing interest in Reinforcement Learning (RL) based control methods in ITS applications such as autonomous driving and traffic management solutions. Deep learning helps in approximating substantially complex nonlinear functions from complicated data sets and tackling complex control issues. In this paper, we propose an approach based on Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) and smart routing to improve the flow of autonomous vehicles on road networks. We evaluate Multi-Agent Advantage Actor-Critic (MA2C) and Independent Advantage Actor-Critical (IA2C), recently suggested Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning techniques with smart routing for traffic signal optimization to determine its potential. We investigate the framework offered by non-Markov decision processes, enabling a more in-depth understanding of the algorithms. We conduct a critical analysis to observe the robustness and effectiveness of the method. The method's efficacy and reliability are demonstrated by simulations using SUMO, a software modeling tool for traffic simulations. We used a road network that contains seven intersections. Our findings show that MA2C, when trained on pseudo-random vehicle flows, is a viable methodology that outperforms competing techniques.

Automated summary

Intelligent traffic management systems have gained significant attention in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and Reinforcement Learning (RL) based control methods have become increasingly popular in applications such as autonomous driving and traffic management solutions in ITS. This paper proposes an approach based on Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) and smart routing to improve the flow of autonomous vehicles on road networks. The evaluation of Multi-Agent Advantage Actor-Critic (MA2C) and Independent Advantage Actor-Critical (IA2C) shows the potential of these recently suggested techniques for traffic signal optimization. The effectiveness and reliability of the method are demonstrated through simulations using SUMO, a software modeling tool for traffic simulations.