MPC-Based Variable Speed Limit and its Impact on Traffic with V2I Type ACC

Previous microscopic simulation work of [1] intended to maximize freeway bottleneck flow using Variable Speed Limit (VSL) determined by simple feedback control at the most downstream bottleneck. VSL in other sections upstream are simply determined by distance-based interpolation. The main contributions of this paper are: (a) to expand the feedback control approaches at the most downstream bottleneck; (b) to determine the VSL in other upstream sections through a Model Predictive Control (MPC) with a 2nd order METANET model; (c) Vehicle-to-Infrastructure-to (V2I) ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) vehicles and their interaction with other traffic are modeled in the simulation, which use the VSL as set-speed for control to exclude driver behavior; and (d) the impact on traffic throughput has been simulated for several levels market penetration of ACC vehicles. Microscopic simulation has been conducted using a previously calibrated Aimsun network model of 1-66 inside the Capital Beltway. Simulation results showed improvement in several aspects including: Total Travel Time, Total Travel Distance, Total Delay, Speed Variation, and flow at bottlenecks. Overall traffic has also been improved compared to the previous approach in [1].