Variable speed limit design based on mode dependent Cell Transmission Model

Journal article, 2017

In this paper a mode dependent variable speed limit (VSL) control strategy is developed for motorway networks. The suggested rolling horizon and coordinated algorithm uses switching mode Cell Transmission Model (CTM) and purports to maximize network throughput. In this line, first, a VSL signal scheduled piecewise affine switching mode CTM is derived based on the polyhedral description of Godunov fluxes. Second, a two-stage, coordinated, rolling horizon VSL sequence generation procedure is proposed. The set of possible VSL signs is selected by applying input constraints in order to eliminate spatial and temporal VSL oscillations. Then, the set of modes is further reduced according to the stable and adjacent reachable modes of the switching mode CTM. Over the remaining set of input signals, network capacity is maximized with the help of solving a mixed integer optimization problem under the form of reference density tracking objective. The method is implemented in simulation environment to demonstrate its computational efficiency and viability to attenuate shockwaves.