arXiv subjects

Alireza Khani

Publications and source records attributed to Alireza Khani.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

A Discrete-time Dynamical Model for Optimal Dispatching and Rebalancing of Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems

Autonomous vehicles are rapidly evolving and will soon enable the application of large-scale mobility-on-demand (MoD) systems. Managing the fleets of available vehicles, commonly known as "rebalancing," is crucial to ensure that vehicles are distributed properly to meet customer demands. This paper presents an optimal control approach to optimize vehicle scheduling and rebalancing in an autonomous mobility-on-demand (AMoD) system. We use graph theory to model a city partitioned into virtual zones. Zones represent small areas of the city where vehicles can stop and pick up/drop off customers, whereas links denote corridors of the city along which autonomous vehicles can move. They are considered vertices and edges in the graph. Vehicles employed in the AMoD scheme are autonomous, and rebalancing can be executed by dispatching available empty vehicles to areas undersupplied. Rebalancing is performed on the graph's vertices, i.e., between city areas. We propose a linear, discrete-time model of an AMoD system using a transformed network. After acquiring the model, the desired number of rebalancing vehicles for the AMoD model is derived through an optimization problem. Moreover, the well-posedness of the model is illustrated. To leverage the proposed model, we implemented the model predictive control (MPC) framework to find the optimal rebalancing and scheduling policy. We show the MPC's effectiveness and how the MPC framework can be implemented in real-time for a real-world case study. The numerical results show that the MPC with a linear cost function and linear reference, which it tracks, is effective, outperforming other MPC-based and state-of-the-art algorithms across all evaluation criteria.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2023

Data-Driven H-infinity Control with a Real-Time and Efficient Reinforcement Learning Algorithm: An Application to Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a class of artificial intelligence algorithms being used to design adaptive optimal controllers through online learning. This paper presents a model-free, real-time, data-efficient Q-learning-based algorithm to solve the H$_{\infty}$ control of linear discrete-time systems. The computational complexity is shown to reduce from $\mathcal{O}(\underline{q}^3)$ in the literature to $\mathcal{O}(\underline{q}^2)$ in the proposed algorithm, where $\underline{q}$ is quadratic in the sum of the size of state variables, control inputs, and disturbance. An adaptive optimal controller is designed and the parameters of the action and critic networks are learned online without the knowledge of the system dynamics, making the proposed algorithm completely model-free. Also, a sufficient probing noise is only needed in the first iteration and does not affect the proposed algorithm. With no need for an initial stabilizing policy, the algorithm converges to the closed-form solution obtained by solving the Riccati equation. A simulation study is performed by applying the proposed algorithm to real-time control of an autonomous mobility-on-demand (AMoD) system for a real-world case study to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2022

Planning of integrated mobility-on-demand and urban transit networks

We envision a multimodal transportation system where Mobility-on-Demand (MoD) service is used to serve the first mile and last mile of transit trips. For this purpose, the current research formulates an optimization model for designing an integrated MoD and urban transit system. The proposed model is a mixed-integer non-linear programming model that captures the strategic behavior of passengers in a multimodal network through a passenger assignment model. It determines which transit routes to operate, the frequency of the operating routes, the fleet size of vehicles required in each transportation analysis zone to serve the demand, and the passenger flow on both road and transit networks. A Benders decomposition approach with several enhancements is proposed to solve the given optimization program. Computational experiments are presented for the Sioux Falls multimodal network. The results show a significant improvement in the congestion in the city center with the introduction and optimization of an integrated transportation system. The proposed design allocates more vehicles to the outskirt zones in the network (to serve the first mile and last mile of transit trips) and more frequency to the transit routes in the city center. The integrated system significantly improves the share of transit passengers and their level of service in comparison to the base optimized transit system. The sensitivity analysis of the bus and vehicle fleet shows that increasing the number of buses has more impact on improving the level of service of passengers compared to increasing the number of MoD vehicles. Finally, we provide managerial insights for deploying such multimodal service.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

An algorithm for integrating peer-to-peer ridesharing and schedule-based transit system for first mile/last mile access

Due to limited transit network coverage and infrequent service, suburban commuters often face the transit first mile/last mile (FMLM) problem. To deal with this, they either drive to a park-and-ride location to take transit, use carpooling, or drive directly to their destination to avoid inconvenience. Ridesharing, an emerging mode of transportation, can solve the transit first mile/last mile problem. In this setup, a driver can drive a ride-seeker to a transit station, from where the rider can take transit to her respective destination. The problem requires solving a ridesharing matching problem with the routing of riders in a multimodal transportation network. We develop a transit-based ridesharing matching algorithm to solve this problem. The method leverages the schedule-based transit shortest path to generate feasible matches and then solves a matching optimization program to find an optimal match between riders and drivers. The proposed method not only assigns an optimal driver to the rider but also assigns an optimal transit stop and a transit vehicle trip departing from that stop for the rest of the rider's itinerary. We also introduce the application of space-time prism (STP) (the geographical area which can be reached by a traveler given the time constraints) in the context of ridesharing to reduce the computational time by reducing the network search. An algorithm to solve this problem dynamically using a rolling horizon approach is also presented. We use simulated data obtained from the activity-based travel demand model of Twin Cities, MN to show that the transit-based ridesharing can solve the FMLM problem and save a significant number of vehicle-hours spent in the system.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2018

Discovering the hidden community structure of public transportation networks

Advances in public transit modeling and smart card technologies can reveal detailed contact patterns of passengers. A natural way to represent such contact patterns is in the form of networks. In this paper we utilize known contact patterns from a public transit assignment model in a major metropolitan city, and propose the development of two novel network structures, each of which elucidate certain aspects of passenger travel behavior. We first propose the development of a transfer network, which can reveal passenger groups that travel together on a given day. Second, we propose the development of a community network, which is derived from the transfer network, and captures the similarity of travel patterns among passengers. We then explore the application of each of these network structures to identify the most frequently used travel paths, i.e., routes and transfers, in the public transit system, and model epidemic spreading risk among passengers of a public transit network, respectively. In the latter our conclusions reinforce previous observations, that routes crossing or connecting to the city center in the morning and afternoon peak hours are the most "dangerous" during an outbreak.

cs.DM↗