Multi agent based modeling and simulation of micro

Multi-agentbasedmodelingandsimulationofmicroscopictrafficinvirtualrealitysystemYueYua,⇑,AbdelkaderElKamelb,GuanghongGongc,FengxiaLiaaBeijingLabofIntelligentInformationTechnology,SchoolofComputerScience,BeijingInstituteofTechnology,Beijing100081,ChinabLAGIS,CNRSUMR8129,EcoleCentraledeLille,Villeneuved’Ascq59651,FrancecSchoolofAutomationScienceandElectricalEngineering,BeihangUniversity,Beijing100191,ChinaarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received4April2013Receivedinrevisedform30March2014Accepted1April2014Availableonline8May2014Keywords:Multi-agentTrafficsimulationVirtualrealityMicroscopictrafficbehaviorabstractTrafficsimulationinvirtualrealitysystemplaysanimportantpartintheresearchofmicro-scopictrafficbehavior,butdevelopingthetrafficsimulationisadifficultworkbecauseofitsinherentcomplexity.Thisarticlefocusesonthemodelingandsimulationofmicroscopictrafficbehaviorinvirtualrealitysystemusingmulti-agenttechnology,ahierarchicalmodularmodelingmethodologyanddistributedsimulation.Besides,thedynamicfeaturesoftherealworldhavebeenconsideredinthesimulationsysteminordertoimprovethemicroscopictrafficanalysis.First,themulti-agentbasedsystemframeworkisdesignedandanalyzed.Then,theenvironmentagentandtheintelligentvehicleagentarepresentedforthesimulationofinteractionbetweenvehiclesandenvironment,especiallytheroadgeometryandwindaffectonthevehicle.Finally,theapplicationresultsarepresentedtoshowthefeasibilityoftheproposedmethod.2014ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved.1.IntroductionTransportationresearchanddevelopmentarenolongerafielddominatedbycivil,mechanical,operationresearch,andothertraditionalengineeringandmanagementdisciplines[1],butitisaninterdisciplinaryfield.ThedevelopmentofIntelligentTransportationSystem(ITS)andAutomatedHighwaySystem(AHS)requiresextensivetesting,verificationandevaluationofnewtrafficconcepts.Computersimulationiswidelyusedinthedesignandtestofintelligentvehicles,tocomplementexperimentalresultsaswellastoanalyzedifferentcontrolalgorithmsindifferenttrafficsituationsandenvironment,whererealisticexperimentaltestswithrealvehicleswouldbedifficulttoaccomplishduetohardware,vehicleavailability,safetyandreproducibilityproblems[2].Trafficsimulationprovidesaflexible,effectiveandsafewaytoresearchinnovativeconceptsandapplications.Severaltrafficsimulationtoolshavebeendeveloped,suchasAIMSUN,VISSIM,andMITSIM.TheprimaryareasofapplicationforAIMSUNareofflinetrafficengineeringandmorerecently,online(real-time)trafficmanagementdecisionsupport.Ineithercase,theuseofAIMSUNorAIMSUNOnlineaimstoprovidesolutionstoshortandmediumtermplanningandoperationalproblems[3].VISSIMisamicroscopic,behavior-basedmulti-purposetrafficsimulationtoanalyzeandoptimizetrafficflows.Itoffersawidevarietyofurbanandhighwayapplications,integratingpublicandprivatetransportation[4].TheMITSIMmodelhasbeenusedtoevaluateaspectsofthetrafficcontrolsystemoftheCentralArtery/TunnelprojectinBoston[5].Littleattentionhasbeenpaidonsystemmodelingandformalspecificationoftrafficsimulation,whichresultsinagapbetweenthe2014ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved.⇑Correspondingauthor.Tel.:[phone].E-mailaddresses:[e-mail](Y.Yu),[e-mail](A.ElKamel),[e-mail](G.Gong),[e-mail](F.Li).SimulationModellingPracticeandTheory45(2014)62–79ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirectSimulationModellingPracticeandTheoryjournalhomepage:ficsimulationsystemisadifficultworkbecauseofitsinherentcomplexity,suchastheinteractionbetweenvehicleandenvironment,thecommu-nicationamongthesoftwares,thedevelopmentofdifferentsimulationmodelsandthedesignofallkindsofsimulationapplications.Therefore,itisnecessarytostructurethecomplexsystemintorelativelyindependentmodules,whichcanrealizemakingsimulationsystemeasytobebuiltandmaintained.Inthisway,thisgapcouldbedecreased.VirtualReality(VR)technologyisincreasinglybeingusedintransportationvisualization[6],trafficsimulationsystems[7]anddrivingsimulators[8].In[9,10],wepresentedtheintelligentvehiclesimulationplatformsthatcombineVRandITS/AHS.ThedevelopmentofMulti-AgentSystem(MAS)bringsanewideatogodeepintorecognizingthemodelingandsimulationofintelligenttrafficsystem.MASprovidesasuitablewaytomodelandsimulatetrafficsystemssincetheyofferanintuitivewaytodescribeeveryautonomousentityontheindividuallevel.MAShasbeenusedincollaborativedriving[11,12],agent-baseddriverbehaviormodeling[13,14]andmulti-agentbasedmicroscopictrafficsimulation[15,16].Inspiredbytheexistingstudiesmentionedabove,amodularapplicationsoftware,VirtualRealityIntelligentSimulationSystemofVehicles(VR-ISSV)hasbeendeveloped,combiningtraditionalITSwithVRandMAStosystematicallyinvestigatethemodelingmethodofvehiclesimulationsystem.Weareinterestedintwoaspectsthatareimportantforvirtualrealitytrafficsimulationsystem:thefirstoneistostructurethecomplexsystemintorelativelyindependentmodules,whichcanrealizemakingsimulationsystemeasytobebuiltandmaintained;thesecondoneisthatnoto