Augmented Traffic Lights by means of Cloud Services

Inhalt:
In this paper, we introduce a novel approach for adaptive local traffic control by means of a virtual traffic light optimisation system. Today’s traffic management systems feature real time capabilities to efficiently controlling dense traffic situations. However, they lack the rich data needed for supporting this kind of applications, which are demanding in terms of information availability, quality, reliability, and market penetration of the associated technology. The increasing diffusion of connected vehicles, together with the utilization of mobile communication technologies, the power of cloud computing technology and the ability to perform real time data analysis and decision-making enables the development of this new kind of systems. The main enabling technologies are geobased vehicle addressing, accurate positioning, cooperative messaging protocols, cloud-based control and optimisation functionalities and connected vehicles able to perform ad-hoc group negotiation. The concept aims at a more efficient management of road intersections in terms of space and time, resulting in increased driving safety, lower energy consumptions, and consequent reduction in greenhouse gases emissions.