Comparison of Game Theoretical Strategy and Reinforcement Learning in Traffic Light Control

Abstract

Many traffic models and control methods have already been utilized in the public transportation system due to the increasing traffic congestion. Thus, an intelligent traffic model is formalized and presented to control multiple traffic light simultaneously and efficiently according to the distribution of vehicles from each incoming link (i.e. sections) in this paper. Compared with constant strategy, two methods are proposed for traffic light control, i.e., game theoretical strategy and reinforcement learning methods. Game theoretical strategy is generated in a game theoretical framework where incoming links are regarded as players and the combination of the status of traffic lights can be regarded as decisions made by these players. The cost function is evaluated and the strategy is produced with Nash equilibrium for passing maximum vehicles in an intersection. The other one is Single-Agent Reinforcement Learning (SARL), specifically with the Q-learning algorithm in this case, which is usually used in such a dynamic environment to control traffic flow so the traffic problem could be improved. Generally, the intersection is regarded as the centralized agent and controlling signal status is considered as the actions of the agent. The performance of these two methods is compared after simulated and implemented in a junction.