The aim of this work is to benefit from the potential of the cooperative driving in order to optimize the traffic throughput at isolated intersections. To achieve this objective, we have proposed a new traffic control system for isolated intersections: Cooperative Vehicle-Actuation Signalization (CVAS). The concept of this new system is based on the assumption of the ability of exchanging information between each vehicle and the surrounding vehicles or the nearby infrastructure.The system allows more precise control of the traffic since it determines the right-of-way of each vehicle according to its corresponding data sent by the embedded wireless device. The right-of-way is displayed to the driver by means of the onboard signalization. The control system determines the sequence of the vehicles to be directed through the intersection. For the sake of benefiting the improvement brought by the new system, we face several challenges. On the one hand, we are confronted with the absence of a mathematical model to address the control problem. On the other hand, despite the fact that the optimal passing sequence of vehicles can be found by the simple enumeration of all feasible sequences, the exhaustive search does not fulfill the requirements of the real-time application. To overcome these two problems, we seek help from the P-timed Petri nets. This mathematical modeling tool is able to describe the events observed by the position markers in the form of mathematical equations. Two different objectives of the control have been derived from the Little's formula. The first one aims to minimize the maximum exit time of vehicles present in the intersection. An algorithm of dynamic programming and two heuristics have been proposed to achieve this objective. The first heuristic is based on the analysis of the properties of the control problem. The second heuristic is based on the analogy between the dealt problem and the problem of Traveling Salesman Problem, which can be solved successfully by the algorithm of ant colony system. The second objective of the control is to instantly minimize the queue length. A protocol of relaying the right of way has been determined from the assumption of a Petri net that operates at its maximum speed. This simple protocol of control can be extended to all possible layouts of the isolated intersections by using the technique of “mapping”.In this work, a microscopic model (car-following model) is used to simulate the driving behavior. The simulations show that the CVAS system outperforms the other systems which are popularly used at present. It is even better than some innovative systems based on the technology of the cooperative driving. The good results encouraged us to replicate the system under real conditions through a prototype of NXT robots. The tests of this prototype prove the feasibility of the system at least for industrial applications.
