Calibration of a microscopic traffic simulator

A systematic calibration study was performed on a microscopic traffic simulator- MITSIM. An optimization based framework was developed for calibration. Car- Following model parameters were identified for calibration and experimental design methodology was used to determine the set of sensitive parameters. Calibration was performed by minimizing the deviation between the simulated and observed values of speed. Two different objective function forms were formulated for quantifying the deviation between the simulated and observed values. The search space and the optimum parameter values for the two objective function forms were compared. The effect of stochasticity in calibrating the parameter values was also studied. Stochasticity was found to have a significant impact on the optimal parameter values. It was found that though calibration is an intricate process, the performance of the simulator can be substantially improved by an appropriate calibration study.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Kurian, Mathew, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Moshe E. Ben-Akiva and Mithilesh K. Jha.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9145

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/9145