Workshops

In the past decades, freeway traffic control has mainly included approaches based on ramp metering, i.e. actuation via traffic lights preventing a too high flow from entering the freeway during congestion times. In the last few years, with the advent of distributed computing, wireless communication, ubiquitous sensing and increased interest in the development of appropriate control methodologies, metering can be achieved at large scale (not only locally), and can be allied with numerous other approaches such as variable speed limits, special use lanes, etc. The mathematical formulation of the underlying problems is quite challenging; for example, variable speed limits change the underlying flow model used in the problem set up. The formulation of the corresponding control problems is also quite difficult, as many times it results in nonlinear non-convex optimization problems. Numerous approaches have been investigated to solve these problems, which include Lyapunov techniques, adjoint based optimization, and convex relaxation.

The workshop will focus on a number of different aspects of these problems. First, mathematical foundations of PDE control will be investigated as the foundational theoretical work on which control of traffic systems rely. This subtopic will cover the fundamental approaches which are typically used for controlling PDEs (and which appear in the traffic control literature), in particular: Lypaunov stability, differential flatness, adjoint based optimization and more. Another subtopic of the workshop is network control, and will emphasize coupling aspects which appear when trying to do estimation, control or optimization on networks of PDEs (such as the transportation network). Yet another subtopic of the workshop is routing, which has gained a lot of attention in the last several years due to the availability of smartphones which have routing capabilities. Finally, the workshop will address problems arising in future traffic due to the introduction of a number of VACS (vehicle automation and communication systems).

This workshop will include a poster session; a request for posters will be sent to registered participants in advance of the workshop.

Organizing Committee

Carlos Canudas de Wit (GIPSA Lab)
Roberto Horowitz (University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley))
Markos Papageorgiou (Technical University of Crete)