Distributed architecture for real-time coordination of bus holding in transit networks

Abstract—A distributed control approach based on multi-agent negotiation is presented, wherein stops and buses act as agents that communicate in real-time to achieve dynamic coordination of bus dispatching at various stops. The negotiation between a Bus Agent and a Stop Agent is conducted based on marginal cost calculations. We present optimality conditions for the formulated problem, using which we derive a negotiation algorithm to coordinate bus holding at various stops. A comparison between the negotiation algorithm and other simple bus control strategies such as On-Schedule and Even-Headway strategies made through simulations verifies the robustness and efficiency of our Negotiation strategy to different transit environments, involving both stationary passenger arrivals as well as a variety of non-stationary passenger arrivals.