Model-based predictive control for bicycling in urban intersections

Reference:
C. Portilla, F. Valencia, J. Espinosa, A. Núñez, and B. De Schutter, "Model-based predictive control for bicycling in urban intersections," Transportation Research Part C, vol. 70, pp. 27-41, Sept. 2016.

Abstract:
In this paper, a model predictive control approach for improving the efficiency of bicycling as part of intermodal transportation systems is proposed. Considering a dedicated bicycle lanes infrastructure, the focus in this paper is to optimize the dynamic interaction between bicycles and vehicles at the multimodal urban traffic intersections. In the proposed approach, a dynamic model for the flows, queues, and number of both vehicles and bicycles is explicitly incorporated in the controller. For obtaining a good trade-off between the total time spent by the cyclists and by the drivers, a Pareto analysis is proposed to adjust the objective function of the MPC controller. Simulation results for a two-intersections urban traffic network are presented and the controller is analyzed considering different methods of including in the MPC controller the inflow demands of both vehicles and bicycles.