Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1811.03846

Computation Load Balancing Real-Time Model Predictive Control in Urban Traffic Networks

Qiming Zou·Ke Lu·Yu Li
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Owing to the rapid growth number of vehicles, urban traffic congestion has become more and more severe in the last decades. As an effective approach, Model Predictive Control (MPC) has been applied to urban traffic signal control system. However, the potentially high online computation burden may limit its further application for real scenarios. In this paper, a new approach based on online active set strategy is proposed to improve the real-time performance of MPC-based traffic controller by reducing the online computing time. This approach divides one control cycle into several sequential sampling intervals. In each interval, online active set method is applied to solve quadratic programming (QP) of traffic signal control model, by searching the optimal solution starting at the optimal solution of previous interval in the feasible region. The most appealing property of this approach lies in that it can distribute the computational complexity into several sample intervals, instead of imposing heavy computation burden at each end of control cycle. The simulation experiments show that this breakthrough approach can obviously reduce the online computational complexity, and increase the applicability of the MPC in real-life traffic networks.

Explore related subjects

eess.SYcs.SY

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Qiming Zou, Ke Lu, Yu Li. 2018-11-09. Computation Load Balancing Real-Time Model Predictive Control in Urban Traffic Networks. https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.03846

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Constrained Feedback Control of Nonlinear Systems via Approximate HJB and Control Barrier Functions

This paper presents a two-stage framework for constrained feedback control of input-affine nonlinear systems. Offline, an approximate value function for the unconstrained problem is computed, for example using Hamilton--Jacobi--Bellman (HJB)-based policy iteration. Online, the proposed quadratic program (QP) minimizes the pre-Hamiltonian evaluated using the approximate value-function gradient subject to safety constraints enforced by control barrier functions (CBFs). This architecture decouples performance optimization from constraint enforcement, allowing constraints to be modified without recomputing the value function. As in CBF-QP architectures based on control Lyapunov functions (CLFs), safety is enforced as a hard constraint; however, the performance objective targets approximate optimality rather than a prescribed Lyapunov decay. Numerical results on a linear 2-state hovercraft and a nonlinear 9-state spacecraft attitude-control problem show agreement with the constrained open-loop optimal control problem (OCP) benchmark in the linear case, and performance close to the OCP benchmark, improving on CLF-based controllers, in the nonlinear case.

eess.SY↗
arXiv2026

Rao-Blackwellized Stein Gradient Descent for Joint State-Parameter Estimation

We present a filtering framework for online joint state estimation and parameter identification in nonlinear, time-varying systems. The algorithm uses a Rao-Blackwellization technique to infer joint state-parameter posteriors efficiently. In particular, conditional state distributions are computed analytically via Kalman filtering, while model parameters, including the measurement-noise covariance, are approximated using particle-based Stein Variational Gradient Descent (SVGD), enabling stable real-time inference. To handle parameters subject to physical constraints, we further introduce constrained variants that enforce them through an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) splitting of the SVGD update, including nonlinear equality constraints that standard particle filters cannot readily handle. We derive a stability bound that relates the approximation error in the parameter posterior to the resulting error in the marginal state distribution. Performance of the proposed filters is validated on three case studies: a fed-batch bioreactor with Haldane kinetics and a damped pendulum, both under physical constraints, and a neural-network-augmented dynamic system. The examples cover parameter estimation under inequality and equality constraints and online neural-network training within a dynamical model.

eess.SY↗
arXiv2026

Firing Rate Neural Network Implementations of Model Predictive Control

Human and animal brains perform planning to enable complex movements and behaviors, a process that can be effectively described using model predictive control (MPC). How could the brain physically implement MPC? In this work, we translate model predictive controllers into firing rate neural networks, offering insights into the nonlinear neural dynamics that underpin planning. We propose a constructive method; no training is required. This is done first applying the projected gradient method to the dual problem to derive a baseline neural network implementation. We then use factorization and contraction analysis to systematically generate alternative network architectures; in other words, we systematically generate hypotheses for how planning is done in the brain via neural dynamics. Finally, we present numerical simulations to study different neural networks performing MPC to balance an inverted pendulum on a cart (i.e., balancing a stick on a hand), including one example in which imposing sparse connectivity (a property observed in brain networks) does not degrade control performance.

eess.SY↗