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Vol: 56(70) No: 4 / December 2011 

Multi-Agent System Architecture Used in Traffic Control Application
Ioana Cobeanu
Department of Automation, Transilvania University of Brasov, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mihai Viteazu Street, Number 5, 500039 Brasov – Romania, phone: +40268418836, e-mail: ioana.cobeanu@unitbv.ro
Vasile Comnac
Department of Automation, Transilvania University of Brasov, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science , Mihai Viteazu Street, Number 5, 500039 Brasov – Romania, e-mail: comnac@unitbv.ro


Keywords: Multi-agent system, architecture, application, traffic control, incident detection, route planning

Abstract
The system’s distributed environment is a dynamic one, being in a continuous change. The technology used to model such a system should be able to manage the unpredictable situations that appear in the system’s environment. The multi-agent technology is used with success to model the distributed systems. The proposed multi agent system used for modeling the application realizes the traffic control. Because transportation systems are dynamic systems, their control should be made in real-time. This way the system can respond immediately to the changes that appear in the system. The main goal of the application is to decrease the time spent by the cars in traffic and each driver to fulfill his daily plan. The proposed architecture is composed from mobile agents (the cars that are in the monitored area) and a specialized agent which makes the incidents detection. Using this architecture the system’s entities autonomy is maintained (the entities make their own decisions) without being necessary a central coordinator. In the same time it seeks to increase the system flexibility (to make easier adding or deleting agents). Each agent has access in real-time to the traffic status. Based on the traffic status the agents can make their own decisions regarding their route. The chosen route has to respect as much as possible the arriving times to clients and to destination.

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