UCATSC: Uncertainty-Aware Constrained Traffic Signal Control Under Vision-Based Partial Observability

Abstract

Camera-based adaptive traffic signal control is inherently partially observable: detections can be missed, vehicle speeds and distances can be noisy, and a phase-change decision becomes temporally irreversible once yellow onset is initiated. This paper presents UCATSC, an interpretable uncertainty-aware constrained decision layer for vision-based adaptive signal control. UCATSC maintains a reduced movement-level belief state over queue, arrival, and service-age variables; evaluates admissible phase actions through finite-horizon counterfactual rollouts in belief space; and filters candidate actions using predictive dilemma-zone safety and service-age/starvation constraints before execution. The method is evaluated primarily in SUMO using matched seeds, classical baselines, a trained DQN-RL baseline, a safety-masked DQN variant, targeted safety/liveness/uncertainty stress tests, and a three-intersection corridor extension. In the tested scenarios, UCATSC demonstrates competitive mobility performance, eliminates observed dilemma-zone violations for the constrained variants, bounds service age in starvation stress tests, and maintains millisecond-level online runtime. A controlled physical vision testbed is included as supplementary feasibility evidence for the vision-to-belief interface; it is not presented as field validation of safety, emissions, or deployment readiness.