Real-Time Traffic Signal Control for Modern Roundabouts by Using Particle Swarm Optimization-Based Fuzzy Controller

—Due to that the existing traffic facilities can hardly be extended, developing traffic signal control methods is the most important way to improve the traffic efficiency of modern roundabouts. This paper proposes a novel traffic signal controller with two fuzzy layers for signalizing the roundabout. The outer layer of the controller computes urgency degrees of all the phase subsets and then activates the most urgent subset. This mechanism helps to instantly respond to the current traffic condition of the roundabout so as to improve real-timeness. The inner layer of the controller computes extension time of the current phase. If the extension value is larger than a threshold value, the current phase is maintained; otherwise the next phase in the running phase subset (selected by the outer layer) is activated. The inner layer adopts well-designed phase sequences, which helps to smooth the traffic flows and to avoid traffic jam. In general, the proposed traffic signal controller is capable of improving real-timeness as well as reducing traffic congestion. Moreover, an offline particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is developed to optimize the membership functions adopted in the proposed controller. By using optimal membership functions, the performance of the controller can be further improved. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed controller outperforms previous traffic signal controllers in terms of improving the traffic efficiency of modern roundabouts.