Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Traffic Signal Control Using Advanced Machine Learning Techniques

• Author(s): Ganapathi Sai Abhishek Grandhe; Dr. Gnana Prakasam Thangvel
• Paper ID: 1717642
• Page: 1490-1496
• Published Date: 14-05-2026
• Published In: Iconic Research And Engineering Journals
• Publisher: IRE Journals
• e-ISSN: 2456-8880
• Volume/Issue: Volume 9 Issue 11 May-2026

Abstract

Traffic jam in cities has become one of the major issues of modern cities due to high rates of urbanization, rise in the number of vehicles and poor development of road network. Conventional traffic light systems are normally based on fixed time or rule-based control measures that are not able to be responsive to changing and unanticipated traffic conditions. These systems therefore have a tendency of increasing the waiting time of vehicles, the length of queues, and inefficient use of the road capacity. RL is now a promising technology that can be utilized to develop the intelligent and adaptive Vehicle Actuated Control (VAC) systems that will be able to learn the best control policies by continually interacting with the traffic environment. In this work a RL based dynamic TSC framework has been Suggested with the Vehicle Actuated Control (VAC)ler being an intelligent agent, which monitors the real time traffic such as the length of queues, the arrivals made by various vehicles and the current signal phase. The agent, with assistance of these observations, selects the appropriate signal actions to maximize traffic flow and to reduce congestion. PPO and DQN are DRL algorithms, which are used to learn effective signal control strategies through training in a simulation. The effectiveness of the Suggested system is probed and contrasted to the conventional fixed-time traffic lights control systems. The RL-based controller is indeed capable of causing a dramatic decrease in the average length of queues, decreased waiting time of vehicles and rised traffic throughput, as the results of the experiment under consideration demonstrate. The suggested solution may be seen as a scale-up and adaptive solution to smart transportation networks and contributes to the creation of effective traffic control in smart cities.

Keywords

Intelligent Transportation Systems, Multi Agents Systems, Traffic Optimization, Machine Learning, Smart Cities.

Citations

IRE Journals:
Ganapathi Sai Abhishek Grandhe, Dr. Gnana Prakasam Thangvel "Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Traffic Signal Control Using Advanced Machine Learning Techniques" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 9 Issue 11 2026 Page 1490-1496

IEEE:
Ganapathi Sai Abhishek Grandhe, Dr. Gnana Prakasam Thangvel "Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Traffic Signal Control Using Advanced Machine Learning Techniques" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 9(11)