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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sekar, Manonmani, Nezamoddini, Nasim
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02217
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author Sekar, Manonmani
Nezamoddini, Nasim
author_facet Sekar, Manonmani
Nezamoddini, Nasim
contents One of the main challenges in managing traffic at multilane intersections is ensuring smooth coordination between human-driven vehicles (HDVs) and connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs). This paper presents a novel traffic signal control framework that combines Graph Attention Networks (GAT) with Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) reinforcement learning to address this challenge. GATs are used to model the dynamic graph- structured nature of traffic flow to capture spatial and temporal dependencies between lanes and signal phases. The proposed SAC is a robust off-policy reinforcement learning algorithm that enables adaptive signal control through entropy-optimized decision making. This design allows the system to coordinate the signal timing and vehicle movement simultaneously with objectives focused on minimizing travel time, enhancing performance, ensuring safety, and improving fairness between HDVs and CAVs. The model is evaluated using a SUMO-based simulation of a four-way intersection and incorporating different traffic densities and CAV penetration rates. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the GAT-SAC approach by achieving a 24.1% reduction in average delay and up to 29.2% fewer traffic violations compared to traditional methods. Additionally, the fairness ratio between HDVs and CAVs improved to 1.59, indicating more equitable treatment across vehicle types. These findings suggest that the GAT-SAC framework holds significant promise for real-world deployment in mixed-autonomy traffic systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_02217
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimizing Multi-Lane Intersection Performance in Mixed Autonomy Environments
Sekar, Manonmani
Nezamoddini, Nasim
Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
One of the main challenges in managing traffic at multilane intersections is ensuring smooth coordination between human-driven vehicles (HDVs) and connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs). This paper presents a novel traffic signal control framework that combines Graph Attention Networks (GAT) with Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) reinforcement learning to address this challenge. GATs are used to model the dynamic graph- structured nature of traffic flow to capture spatial and temporal dependencies between lanes and signal phases. The proposed SAC is a robust off-policy reinforcement learning algorithm that enables adaptive signal control through entropy-optimized decision making. This design allows the system to coordinate the signal timing and vehicle movement simultaneously with objectives focused on minimizing travel time, enhancing performance, ensuring safety, and improving fairness between HDVs and CAVs. The model is evaluated using a SUMO-based simulation of a four-way intersection and incorporating different traffic densities and CAV penetration rates. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the GAT-SAC approach by achieving a 24.1% reduction in average delay and up to 29.2% fewer traffic violations compared to traditional methods. Additionally, the fairness ratio between HDVs and CAVs improved to 1.59, indicating more equitable treatment across vehicle types. These findings suggest that the GAT-SAC framework holds significant promise for real-world deployment in mixed-autonomy traffic systems.
title Optimizing Multi-Lane Intersection Performance in Mixed Autonomy Environments
topic Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02217