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This paper introduces a library for cross-simulator comparison of reinforcement learning models in traffic signal control tasks. This library is developed to implement recent state-of-the-art reinforcement learning models with extensible interfaces and unified cross-simulator evaluation metrics. It supports commonly-used simulators in traffic signal control tasks, including Simulation of Urban MObility(SUMO) and CityFlow, and multiple benchmark datasets for fair comparisons. We conducted experiments to validate our implementation of the models and to calibrate the simulators so that the experiments from one simulator could be referential to the other. Based on the validated models and calibrated environments, this paper compares and reports the performance of current state-of-the-art RL algorithms across different datasets and simulators. This is the first time that these methods have been compared fairly under the same datasets with different simulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to traditional traffic signal control methods, the method driven by Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has shown better performance. But the problem of low sample utilization in reinforcement learning also arises. To deal with the problem, this paper presents a novel Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient with Dual Buffer (TD3_DB) for traffic signal control. In the proposed framework, two experience buffers are used to store important samples and normal samples, separately, and the proportion of the two buffers is adjusted adaptively. In addition, lane pressure, describing the dynamic feature of lane traffic flow, is used for the state design of the TD3 agent, which enhances the perception of the agent toward intersections. Comprehensive experiments on different traffic flow modes has shown, the dual experience replay scheme can improve the sample utilization, and the proposed TD3_DB performs better than other methods such as original TD3, Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), etc., effectively reducing vehicle queue length and waiting time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many real-life scenarios, multiple agents necessitate cooperation to accomplish tasks. Benefiting from the significant success of deep learning, many single-agent deep reinforcement learning algorithms have been extended to multi-agent scenarios. Overestimation in value estimation of Q-learning is a significant issue that has been studied comprehensively in the single-agent domains, but rarely in multi-agent reinforcement learning. In this paper, we first demonstrate that Q-learning-based multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) methods generally have notably serious overestimation issues, which cannot be alleviated by current methods. To tackle this problem, we introduce the double critic networks structure and the delayed policy update to Q-learning-based multi-agent MARL methods, which reduce the overestimation and enhance the quality of policy updating. To demonstrate the versatility of our proposed method, we select several Q-learning based MARL methods and evaluate them on several multi-agent tasks on the multi-agent particle environment and SMAC. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can avoid the overestimation problem and significantly improve performance. Besides, application in the Traffic Signal Control verifies the feasibility of applying the proposed method in real-world scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a traffic queue model is employed to simulate traffic parameters for optimization purposes. The primary objective is to enhance the average queue length, cumulative delay, and cumulative reward for varying numbers of vehicles generated using an innovative approach. The proposed methodology integrates deep Reinforcement Q-Learning techniques implemented through a realistic simulator, Simulation of Urban MObility, based on OpenStreetMap. This simulator is used to balance the flow of traffic by monitoring traffic conditions and adjusting signals (Red/Yellow/Green) accordingly. The research extensively evaluates simulation outcomes across different scenarios involving 50, 100, 500, and 1000 vehicles, with episodes 10, 50 and 100. The results provide valuable insights into training times, simulation durations, and total rewards obtained, indicating improvements in mitigating traffic congestion. The introduction of a traffic control strategy enhances model effectiveness through the utilization of four-layer deep neural network architectures with 400 neurons in hidden layers. However, the study also highlights persistent challenges related to real-time implementation and complexities in state-action-agent relationships. The progress highlights improvements in reducing congestion and enhancing efficiency at junctions by dynamically adjusting signal phases while leveraging historical data. The results highlight the potential of dynamic traffic management strategies in effectively addressing urban traffic challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic lights are crucial for urban traffic management, as they significantly impact congestion reduction and travel safety. Traditional methods relying on hand-crafted rules and operator experience are limited in their ability to adapt to changing traffic environments. To address this challenge, we have been exploring intelligent traffic light control using deep reinforcement learning techniques. However, current approaches often suffer from inadequate training data and unstable training processes, leading to suboptimal performance and real-world consequences. In this study, we propose RELight, a novel random ensemble reinforcement learning-based traffic light control framework. RELight effectively utilizes collected empirical data, ensuring a stable and efficient training process. To evaluate the performance of our proposed framework, we conducted a comprehensive set of experiments on a variety of datasets, including four synthetic datasets and a real traffic dataset collected from surveillance cameras at an intersection in Hangzhou, China. The results show that RELight outperforms existing approaches, demonstrating its superiority and potential for practical traffic light control applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing urban traffic and congestion have led to significant issues such as rising air pollution and wasted time, highlighting the need for an intelligent traffic light control (TLC) system to minimize vehicle waiting times. This paper presents a novel TLC system that leverages the Internet of Things (IoT) for data collection and employs the random forest algorithm for preprocessing and feature extraction. A deep belief network predicts future traffic conditions, and a support vector regression network is integrated to enhance prediction accuracy. Additionally, the traffic light control strategy is optimized using reinforcement learning. The proposed method is evaluated through two different scenarios. The first scenario is compared with fixed-time control and the double dueling deep neural network (3DQN) methods. The second scenario compares it with the SVM, KNN, and MAADAC approaches. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms these alternative approaches, showing substantial improvements in average vehicle waiting times by more than 20%, 32%, and 45%, respectively. Using a deep belief network, supplemented by support vector regression, ensures high precision in forecasting traffic patterns. Furthermore, the reinforcement learning-based optimization of the traffic light control strategy effectively adapts to changing traffic conditions, providing superior traffic flow management. The results indicate that the proposed system can substantially reduce traffic congestion and improve urban traffic flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]