Salomón Wollenstein-Betech

Salomón Wollenstein-Betech, Christian Muise, Christos G. Cassandras et al.

Usage of automated controllers which make decisions on an environment are widespread and are often based on black-box models. We use Knowledge Compilation theory to bring explainability to the controller's decision given the state of the system. For this, we use simulated historical state-action data as input and build a compact and structured representation which relates states with actions. We implement this method in a Traffic Light Control scenario where the controller selects the light cycle by observing the presence (or absence) of vehicles in different regions of the incoming roads.

Arian Houshmand, Salomón Wollenstein-Betech, Christos G. Cassandras

We study the problem of routing Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) in the presence of mixed traffic (coexistence of regular vehicles and CAVs). In this setting, we assume that all CAVs belong to the same fleet, and can be routed using a centralized controller. The routing objective is to minimize a given overall fleet traveling cost (travel time or energy consumption). We assume that regular vehicles (non-CAVs) choose their routing decisions selfishly to minimize their traveling time. We propose an algorithm that deals with the routing interaction between CAVs and regular uncontrolled vehicles. We investigate the effect of assigning system-centric routes under different penetration rates (fractions) of CAVs. To validate our method, we apply the proposed routing algorithms to the Braess Network and to a sub-network of the Eastern Massachusetts (EMA) transportation network using actual traffic data provided by the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization. The results suggest that collaborative routing decisions of CAVs improve not only the cost of CAVs, but also that of the non-CAVs. Furthermore, even a small CAV penetration rate can ease congestion for the entire network.