Patent ID: 8253592

Claim:
An external adaptive control system for controlling a traffic signal controller assembly for a plurality of individual phases at an intersection, comprising: at least one interface to receive detector data for a plurality of individual phases; a processing system comprising: at least one processor; a detector processing system operable on the at least one processor and configured to process the detector data to determine a queue length corresponding to each individual phase for which the detector data was received; an optimizer system operable on the at least one processor and configured to determine a non-linear schedule based on the queue lengths for the individual phases, the non-linear schedule comprising any desirable variable order of a plurality of states, each state having a state start time and a state duration; and a schedule system operable on the at least one processor and configured to sequentially generate presence data for each state in the non-linear schedule in the variable state order starting at each state start time and for each state duration, the presence data corresponding to (i) an absence of vehicles at an approach to the intersection even if vehicles are actually present at said approach, or (ii) a presence of vehicles at the approach to the intersection even if no vehicles are actually present at said approach; and a controller assembly interface configured to sequentially transmit the presence data corresponding to each state at each state start time and for each corresponding state duration for reception by the traffic signal controller assembly; wherein the external adaptive control system is external to the traffic controller assembly; whereby the external adaptive control system causes the traffic signal controller assembly to operate according to the non-linear schedule instead of a predefined linear schedule.