Presentation given during Simanipulate (A simulation contest) conducted during QUARK'08 (Tech Fest of BITS Pilani, Goa Campus)

1. SIMANUPULATE
QUARK '08
By
Hemanth Mantri, Anil Kumar, Lenin
B.E(Hons)Computer Science
BITS Pilani, Goa Campus

2. Problem statement : Simulation of traffic flow at a junction
Software Used : NETLOGO 3.0.2

3. Why Traffic signaling ?
● Fast facts
An average Indian in metros spends 6 days in an year in
traffic jams
37% of the road accidents in India are due to improper
traffic control .
Courtesy : wikipedia

4. Why Traffic signaling ?
The initial cost of installing traffic signal is justified by
● The saving in time
● Reducing anxiety
● Eliminating manual effort.
Need to design an optimum system to meet individual
junction needs.

5. DESIGN OBJECTIVES :
● Must be simple
● Easily adaptable to the existing traffic conditions at the
junction
● Must provide the quickest possible clearance to vehicular
and pedestrian traffic in all directions
● Must be flexible enough to take care of change in the traffic
density and character with time.

6. ● The equipment must be easy to start, operate and
maintain
● Withstand severe weather conditions and supply voltage
fluctuations.
● Careful study and analysis of the traffic flow at the
required junction is carried out beforehand to select the
most economical system.

7. Our Model :
Quick view
● Simulates a busy traffic intersection in which the
vehicles come from the four directions namely East,
West, North and South.
● Aims to avoid accidents and to manage the waiting
times of the vehicles
● Includes as many real time inputs as possible.

8. Assumptions:
Each direction of traffic junction has two lanes.
Each square patch (Netlogo term) can be empty or occupied
by exactly 1 vehicle. All vehicles are of same size is assumed
implicitly here.
Explicitly forbids collisions and overtaking.
Pedestrians and Vehicles obey traffic signals (at least up to a
threshold time). This is OK because they are not made to wait
indefinitely.

9. vehicles :
Allowed to come from the four directions.
Randomly move towards any of the other three directions
Frequency of vehicles on each of the 4 directions is adjustable
Try to move to the patch ahead on each time-step and remain
where they are if the patch ahead is occupied
or if the traffic signal prevents them from moving.
Stop when the signal is red BUT up to a limited time beyond
which they lose patience.

10. Vehicles at a traffic light about to enter the intersection will
not do so only if there are not more than a specified amount
of cars already in the intersection area.
While a vehicle is stopped its wait-time counter increases by
1 every time-step.

11. Pedestrians:
Also come from the four directions
Cross the road only when all the signals are red (pedestrian
signal on)
When the PEDESTRIAN switch is on or their count crosses a
given threshold the signal favors pedestrians
Graphs/Monitors :
The monitors show the number of vehicles waiting on each
directions and also their avg speeds.
The throughput graph shows the number of vehicles that cross
the junction in given time. The aim is maximize this.

12. What's New?
● Adaptive to the vehicle frequency in switching the lights.
● No indefinite waiting.
● Provision for pedestrians
● Monitoring vehicle throughput
● Considers the number of waiting cars in every direction
and signals adjust themselves to reduce this.