Traffic Control of the Future

petra13 writes "A high point of the Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems conference this past week was Kurt Dresner and Peter Stone's paper 'Multiagent Traffic Management: A Reservation-Based Intersection Control Mechanism.' They designed an automated system where cars reserve a time to pass through an intersection as they approach it and are then sped up or slowed down to ensure their arrival at exactly the right time. This allows traffic to enter the intersection from all directions simultaneously, eliminating the need for traffic lights and considerably reducing delays caused by stopping traffic. On their website, you can find Java applet simulations to illustrate the system. Especially impressive looking is the six lanes of heavy traffic in all directions simulation. I would love to see this in real life (from a safe distance of course)."

Scary!

[Sgs-Cruz]

That six-lane each way simulation is awesome, but they had better modify the thing before actually rolling it out so that the cars don't go so damn close to each other. Computer control or not, I don't want another guy's car 7" from my bumper at 70 km/h...

Re:Um

[Anonymous Coward]

Turning? Now that is dangerous thinking, as an American you are supposed to go straight and not ask questions. Don't make me report you to John Ashcroft!

I, for one...

[vurg]

..wait, let me RTFA again.

i-feel-lucky

[Barryke]

its not offtopic realy,

Posted by michael on Saturday July 24, @04:07PM
from the i-feel-lucky dept./I>

i-feel-lucky? damn even this geek site's crew has a girlfriend.. :( ..use Google!

Re:What about.....

[pHatidic]

You're taking this too literally. It's really just a metaphor. Let's say to the north of the intersection is the United States. To the south is Iraq. To the west is our ally Great Britain and to the right is terrorist Michael Moore. Does this make any sense to you? Of course it doesn't.

Now these cars are like diplomats all trying to make peace with eachother. If this doesn't make sense it's because it's complete nonsense.

Next we have the pedestrians and bicycles as mentioned in your post. Let these represent terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. If you're confused then clearly its because this entire situation makes no sense.

To conclude while you may think this simple simulation is designed to control cars, it's really something much larger designed to make the world a more friendly place. And if this doesn't make sense to you, you must buy the product.

In all seriousness though, this has applications far beyond cars, such as increasing the efficiency at factories with conveyor belts and robots, routing data over the internet, more efficient combustion engines, etc. While it would be ideal to evolve the perfect solutions using genetic algorithms, this is a good fix in a less than perfect world.

Can't patent this!

[Anonymous Coward]

George Lucas already has prior art on this traffic design as shown in Star Wars Episode 2.

The 6 lane version as a great theme park ride

[sprior]

Imagine a theme park doing the 6 lane version as a futuristic thrill ride. You'd have to hose off the seats after every run...

Re:Um

[paperguy]

Yeah, what about "ambi-turners"?

Car AI of the future, to driver:

[SpotBug]

"Approaching intersection, please close eyes."

Re:Car AI of the future, to driver:

[phillymjs]

"Approaching intersection, please close eyes."

Nuts to that. I'll just get the Peril-Sensitive(TM) Window Glass option.

~Philly

Hey

[mukund]

So where's the Frog?

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