Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering

Daily traffic congestion on freeway networks around the world continues to increase, with detrimental effects on travel times, traffic safety, fuel consumption and environmental pollution. The annual cost of traffic congestion on European roads is estimated to approach 120 b€ or 1% of the GDP. Traffic congestion is only partly due to high demand, since the appearing congestion degrades the expensive infrastructure capacity essentially at the only times it is actually needed, i.e. during the daily peak periods. Traffic control measures, if properly designed and deployed, may lead to substantial
savings of travel time, fuel consumption and environmental impact, along with an improvement of traffic safety. The presentation outlines the related traffic control problems and methods, with a focus on optimal control and feedback approaches. More specifically, the areas of macroscopic traffic flow modelling, local and coordinated ramp metering, variable speed limit control, mainstream traffic flow control, merging traffic control and route information and guidance are addressed, along with the presentation of some selected field results. Emerging developments and needs in relation to VACS (vehicle automation and communication systems) are also briefly addressed.

Riferimenti organizzazione seminario:

Prof. Alberto Isidori ([email protected])

Dott. Alessandro Di Giorgio ([email protected])