SYNOPSIS OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WORK SUBMITTED TO

MAGADH UNIVERSITY, BODH-GAYA

FOR THE Ph.D. DEGREE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

TITLE OF THE RESERCH WORK

SOME CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEORY OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION

WITH THE HELP OF FUZZY LOGIC

Introduction
Transportation systems play an important role in all modern cities of the world.
Poor operation of the transportation system leads to congestion, delays, accidents and
environmental problems. This can have an adverse impact on the national economy.
Therefore, comprehensive transportation planning is needed in order to achieve
efficiency and effectiveness.
Traffic congestion problem is a very big problem in many developed as well as
developing countries. Many critical problems are being caused due to this traffic
congestion. The traveling between two different places is becoming more and more
difficult. Due to these problems people lose time, miss opportunities and get frustrated.
This problem also has a worse impact on companies. The productivity goes on
declining, delivery gets delayed and as a result the cost of product increases. As this
problem will go on increasing with time the new facilities and infrastructure has to be
build. But the disadvantage of making new roads is that the surroundings become more
congested. The traffic control is highly dependent on elements like time, day, season
weather and unpredictable situations such as road accidents, any event or construction
work going on. A traffic control system which solves all the above mentioned problems
is called and intelligent control system. But in this system the main problem is that that
all the traffic control is generally dependent upon the operators judgment. The problems
which we have to face in case of human traffic control are:

1. Lack of skilled persons.

2. High work load on the human operator is affecting the decisions taken by him/her;
3. So, it is imperative to formulate an operators judgment formula in a way to develop
an automatic decision making system.
Todays Technique

1. Microcontrollers control all the functioning.

2. The control is not flexible based on the condition of traffic and crossing.
3. There are no real time adjustments of the on/off timings as per the traffic conditions
and crossings.
In general, the road traffic congestion of urban transport is defined as the ratio of
volume to the capacity of the road [1, 2]. However, the volume and capacity (demand)
of the road are not directly measurable quantities and thus the value of congestion
becomes subjective in nature. Hence, measurable quantities such as density and speed
of the vehicles are used for the estimation of road traffic congestion [3, 4]. In [3,4 ] work
has been made by considering only two parameters. The congestion on the roads
increases when traffic density increases and also increases, congestion also increases
when the speed of the traffic decreases. The road traffic congestion is defined as the
ratio of density to the speed of the vehicles. These two parameters are the inputs to the
fuzzy model, and the output of the model is the level of congestion. In fact, the actual
traffic conditions do not matches perfectly with the conventional way of determining the
congestion level using volume and capacity, because other factors are there which
affect the congestion it also depends upon the human feelings [5]. But by using these
directly measurable quantities, the subjectivity of the conventional method of
determining congestion level using volume and capacity ratio is removed.
The road traffic congestion is a fuzzy task, as there is no standard way of
measuring congestion level on the roads and intersections. It results in serious
environment, time wastage, health hazards, and economic problems. Thus, it is very
important to detect where the congestion occurs, as well as to measure and estimate
how the congestion is. There may be a number of solutions of road traffic congestion
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like road pricing, fuel levies, expansion and improvisation of railway lines, and
elimination of roundabouts. The main objective of this research is to estimate the
road traffic congestion using fuzzy techniques. The fuzzy techniques are being
used in order to tackle this very problem by using the traffic flow information such as
speed and density of the vehicles. The fuzzy logic is well known to be suitable for
handling problems that are nonlinear in nature such as human feelings [5, 6]. Road
congestion is a subjective quantity, because it comes from the feelings of vehicle driver
and decision makers which may be different for different drivers or decision makers. In
the same road conditions, some may feel that the road is heavily congested, while some
others may feel that the road is only slightly congested. This is the problem of
mismatching data interpretation due to different users perception. In traveler navigation
system, publication of congestion degree will provide drivers useful information, thus,
reducing traffic jam, increase efficiency of trips, and avoid wastage of fuel consumption.
It is well known that the process from free flow to serious jam is continuous. It can be
represented by a continuous number, say level of congestion (LOC). The LOC is related
to the basic traffic parameters such as speed and density. There are other traffic
parameters such as number of over bridges, time at which the traffic is very high, etc.;
which affects the congestion level but in this study we will focus only the traffic
parameters; speed and density, which affect congestion. The objective of this study is to
estimate the level of congestion of a road segment using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy
Inference System [7], By measuring accuracy of system outputs against human opinion,
we can evaluate the performance of fuzzy inference systems.
Fuzzy logic has been accepted as an emerging technology in the last two
decades because of a wide range of successful applications, such as in industrial
processes and automotive applications. The term fuzzy logic has been used in two
different senses. It is thus important to clarify the distinction between these two different
usages of the term. In the narrow sense, fuzzy logic refers to a logical system that
generalizes classical two valued logic for reasoning under uncertainty. However in a
wider sense, which is in predominant use on a daily basis, fuzzy logic referees to all of
the theories and technologies that employ fuzzy sets, which relate to classes of objects
with un sharp boundaries where membership is a matter of degree (Yen and Langari,
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199) the mathematical background of fuzzy logic is associated to the fuzzy set theory,
which is the extension of the classical set theory. The following statement lays the
foundation of fuzzy logic (Bogenberger, 2001)

In Fuzzy logic, the truth of any statement becomes a matter of degree

Unlike a classical(non-fuzzy) deterministic

or non-deterministic algorithm [8]

(Floyd 1967) a fuzzy algorithm may contain fuzzy statement, that is, statement
containing names of fuzzy sets[9] (Zadeh, 1965), by which we mean classes in which
there may be grade of membership intermediate between full membership and nonmembership. In other words, it is a matter of degree. It is more general than yes or no.
For instance, fuzzy algorithm may contain fuzzy instruction such as:
(1) x is approximately equal to 7 if y is approximately equal to 12.
(2) If x is large, enough decrease y by several units.
The source of fuzziness in these instructions is fuzzy sets, being identified by
their underlined names.
Familiar examples of fuzzy algorithms drawn from everyday life are instructions
on how to treat a disease, instructions for cooking recipes, instructions for parking a car
etc. In general, such instructions are not dignified with the names algorithm. From our
point of view, they may be regarded as very crude forms of fuzzy algorithms [10] & [11].
A fuzzy instruction is a part of fuzzy algorithm and can be assigned a precise meaning
by making use of the concept of membership function of a fuzzy set.
Porikli and Li, 2004 determine five level of congestion from traffic flow
information and video images using a Hidden Markov Model [12]. Atikom and
Pongpaibool, 2006 estimates the road traffic congestion by using vehicle velocity [13].
Krause and Altrock, 1996 uses fuzzy logic to determine six discrete levels of
congestion [14]. The system uses velocity and vehicle density as inputs for fuzzy
inference system. Sule, 1988; In Jia and Li, 2003 uses different factors which affect the
road traffic congestion [15 ,16]. In this study I will also use fuzzy inference systems, but
quite in a different way from the previous studies where it examine both manually tuned
fuzzy inference systems and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system.

The motivation behind this research work is adaptive neuro-fuzzy and Hidden
Markov Model and the effectiveness of the manually tuned fuzzy system which depends
highly on the fuzzy rules and membership function ranges created by human. There is
no systematic way to create these rules and to decide the ranges, and types of
membership functions. Therefore, it is imperative to adjust these rules by keeping in
mind that congestion is directly proportional to density and inversely proportional to the
speed, we can adjust ranges and type of the membership function by trial and error
method according to the situation until the results are satisfied. The adaptive neurofuzzy inference system can solve this problem automatically by creating fuzzy rules
according to given inputs and outputs [17-18]. In addition, we limit the traffic congestion
status to only five levels-free flow, slow moving, mild congestion, heavy congestion and
serious jam, to draw quick inference a quick and easy to understand report.

Prospective and Perspective of Work.

Reporting road traffic congestion is a confusing task since there is no
standard way of measuring congestion. Typical users need a concise and easy method
to understand traffic report. One of the popular methods used is to report road
congestion by severity levels. Other example is the Jam Factor used at
http://www.traffic.com, where the continuous scale of 0-10 represents overall measure
of the traffic conditions on a roadway. The signs show congestion status in three levels,
namely red (traffic jam), yellow (slow moving), and green (free flow).
The problems of reporting traffic condition by severity levels involves how many
levels to use and what the exact definition of each level is. Road congestion is a
subjective quantity because it comes from the feeling of drivers. In the same road
condition, some may feel that the road is heavily congested, while some others may feel
that the road is only slightly congested. This is the problem of mismatching data
interpretation due to different users experience. Therefore, we introduce a fuzzy
technique to tackle this problem. Fuzzy logic is known to be suitable for problems that
are nonlinear such as human feelings.
Other studies that aim to determine levels of congestion from traffic flow
information include [19][20][21]. Reference [22] estimates five traffic statuses from video
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images using hidden Markov models. References [20] and [21] use fuzzy logic to
determine continuous and six discrete levels of congestion respectively. Both systems
use velocity and vehicle volume as inputs into their fuzzy inference systems. In this
work I will also make use of fuzzy inference systems, here we will use both fuzzy logic
and adaptive neuro-fuzzy [23] systems. The motivation behind our interest in adaptive
neuro-fuzzy is that the effectiveness of the manually tuned fuzzy system depends highly
on the fuzzy rules created by human. There are no systematic ways to create these
rules. Therefore, we have to adjust these rules by trial-and-error method until the results
are satisfied. The adaptive neuro-fuzzy can solve this problem by automatically creating
fuzzy rules according to given inputs and outputs. In addition, we limit the traffic status
to only three levelsfree flow, slow moving, and heavily congested, to facilitate a quick
and easy-to understand report.

Hypothesis
Fuzzy inference systems can handle the situations where uncertainties are
involved, such as problems that depend on the human feelings and expertise. Therefore
fuzzy inference systems are suitable for estimating road traffic congestion where
different people may feel differently in the same congestion situations. There are two
main parts of the fuzzy inference systems 1) input and output membership functions,
whose ranges are manually defined by us to fit with input/output logics; and 2) fuzzy
rules which are manually designed by a programmer [24]. FISs are successfully applied
in the field such as automatic control, data classification, decision analysis, expert
systems, and computer vision. Because of its multidisciplinary nature, FISs are also
associated with a number of names, such as fuzzy rule-base systems, fuzzy expert
systems, fuzzy modeling, fuzzy associated memory, fuzzy logic controllers, and simply
fuzzy systems.
In this research work I will try to evaluate congestion condition of a road segment,
I shall obtain real traffic information at the desired location. This information consists of
vehicle volume and average velocity per minute. This information is fed into the fuzzy
system. The output of the system is the estimated level of congestion. In this work, I try

to experiment with two types of fuzzy systems. First is the manually trained fuzzy logic
system and second is the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system.

Gap in Research Work

Many methods and techniques have been proposed by scientists and research
communities to solve the problem of traffic congestion on highways as well as in the
metropolitan cities [25,27]. Computer scientists have also been in the same hunt to find
out a better solution; especially people working in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
are also trying to make their mark by solving the problem by using various intelligent
agents.
One of the major solutions is a case based solution [26] proposed by computer
researchers. According to this theory, various simulated cases are taken and put
together. For a new case (problem) arriving, all the input parameters are taken and
compared with the available database. If the present case matches with an existing one,
then the earlier measures taken come into play once again. But if none of the existing
cases match with the present scenario then mathematical methods of interpolation and
extrapolation are used to give a nearest possible solution in account with the nearby
existing cases in the present database. If the solution works along nicely, it is added in
the database for future use.
The major flaw of the above mechanism is that the system has to output the
solution after having been fed with the variables of the current situation. This might be
time consuming and consequently can lead to worse as well as entirely new situations,
thus the problem would keep on growing in terms of complexity.
So, the study of neuro-Fuzzy and hidden Markov Model should be an ideal
approach to the implementation of the solution to traffic congestion which is governed
by many uncertainties
Plan of Work (Materials and Methods)
To estimate the road traffic congestion of a road segment of a city, I shall obtain
the traffic flow information at the desired location. The input parameters average speed
and density of the vehicle per fixed interval of time. Subjective congestion evaluation is
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conducted by watching a traffic , and the average traffic congestion of each lane of the
road in every time interval is obtained. This information shall feed into fuzzy systems,
and data sets are prepared in the matrix form containing average speed, density and
human evaluated level of congestion. The adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems shall
be used to quantify the traffic congestion.
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Research Scholar

Supervisor

Deepak Mitra

Dr. Manoranjan Kumar Singh

Pre-PhD Test 2011 Qualified

Prof. P. G. Deptt. Of Mathematics

University Roll No. 17911

Magadh Univeristy BodhGaya