# Polling-systems-based Autonomous Vehicle Coordination in Traffic Intersections with No Traffic Signals

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.07896 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.07896/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 26 Jul 2016.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Reinforcement Learning for Mixed Autonomy Intersections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.04686/) (2021)
- [Unified Automatic Control of Vehicular Systems with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.00268/) (2022)
- [Learning to Control and Coordinate Mixed Traffic Through Robot Vehicles at Complex and Unsignalized Intersections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.05294/) (2023)
- [Intelligent Autonomous Intersection Management](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.04224/) (2022)
- [Optimizing Efficiency of Mixed Traffic through Reinforcement Learning: A Topology-Independent Approach and Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16728/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid development of autonomous vehicles spurred a careful investigation of the potential benefits of all-autonomous transportation networks. Most studies conclude that autonomous systems can enable drastic improvements in performance. A widely studied concept is all-autonomous, collision-free intersections, where vehicles arriving in a traffic intersection with no traffic light adjust their speeds to cross safely through the intersection as quickly as possible. In this paper, we propose a coordination control algorithm for this problem, assuming stochastic models for the arrival times of the vehicles. The proposed algorithm provides provable guarantees on safety and performance. More precisely, it is shown that no collisions occur surely, and moreover a rigorous upper bound is provided for the expected wait time. The algorithm is also demonstrated in simulations. The proposed algorithms are inspired by polling systems. In fact, the problem studied in this paper leads to a new polling system where customers are subject to differential constraints, which may be interesting in its own right.