A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Speed Optimization System to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Emissions for Smart Cities

Increasing traffic density in cities exacerbates air pollution, threatens human health and worsens the global climate crisis. Urgent solutions for sustainable and eco-friendly urban transportation are needed. Innovative technologies like artificial intelligence, particularly Deep Reinforcement Learn...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yıldıray Yiğit, Murat Karabatak
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/3/1545
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850199245379862528
author Yıldıray Yiğit
Murat Karabatak
author_facet Yıldıray Yiğit
Murat Karabatak
author_sort Yıldıray Yiğit
collection DOAJ
description Increasing traffic density in cities exacerbates air pollution, threatens human health and worsens the global climate crisis. Urgent solutions for sustainable and eco-friendly urban transportation are needed. Innovative technologies like artificial intelligence, particularly Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), play a crucial role in reducing fuel consumption and emissions. This study presents an effective approach using DRL to minimize waiting times at traffic lights, thus reducing fuel consumption and emissions. DRL can evaluate complex traffic scenarios and learn optimal solutions. Unlike other studies focusing solely on optimizing traffic light durations, this research aims to choose the optimal vehicle acceleration based on traffic conditions. This method provides safer, more comfortable travel while lowering emissions and fuel consumption. Simulations with various scenarios prove the Deep Q-Network (DQN) algorithm’s success in adjusting speed according to traffic lights. Although the findings confirmed that the DRL algorithms used were effective in reducing fuel consumption and emissions, the DQN algorithm outperformed other DRL algorithms in reducing fuel consumption and emissions in complex city traffic scenarios, and in reducing waiting times at traffic lights. It provides better contributions to creating a sustainable environment by reducing fuel consumption and emissions.
format Article
id doaj-art-2cbf96f446c8431e838cbe95f57d23e4
institution OA Journals
issn 2076-3417
language English
publishDate 2025-02-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Applied Sciences
spelling doaj-art-2cbf96f446c8431e838cbe95f57d23e42025-08-20T02:12:40ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-02-01153154510.3390/app15031545A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Speed Optimization System to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Emissions for Smart CitiesYıldıray Yiğit0Murat Karabatak1Vocational School of Ahlat, Bitlis Eren University Bitlis, Bitlis 13000, TürkiyeDepartment of Software Engineering, Firat University, Elazig 23119, TürkiyeIncreasing traffic density in cities exacerbates air pollution, threatens human health and worsens the global climate crisis. Urgent solutions for sustainable and eco-friendly urban transportation are needed. Innovative technologies like artificial intelligence, particularly Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), play a crucial role in reducing fuel consumption and emissions. This study presents an effective approach using DRL to minimize waiting times at traffic lights, thus reducing fuel consumption and emissions. DRL can evaluate complex traffic scenarios and learn optimal solutions. Unlike other studies focusing solely on optimizing traffic light durations, this research aims to choose the optimal vehicle acceleration based on traffic conditions. This method provides safer, more comfortable travel while lowering emissions and fuel consumption. Simulations with various scenarios prove the Deep Q-Network (DQN) algorithm’s success in adjusting speed according to traffic lights. Although the findings confirmed that the DRL algorithms used were effective in reducing fuel consumption and emissions, the DQN algorithm outperformed other DRL algorithms in reducing fuel consumption and emissions in complex city traffic scenarios, and in reducing waiting times at traffic lights. It provides better contributions to creating a sustainable environment by reducing fuel consumption and emissions.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/3/1545deep reinforcement learningfuel consumption reductionenvironmental pollutionoptimum speed
spellingShingle Yıldıray Yiğit
Murat Karabatak
A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Speed Optimization System to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Emissions for Smart Cities
Applied Sciences
deep reinforcement learning
fuel consumption reduction
environmental pollution
optimum speed
title A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Speed Optimization System to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Emissions for Smart Cities
title_full A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Speed Optimization System to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Emissions for Smart Cities
title_fullStr A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Speed Optimization System to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Emissions for Smart Cities
title_full_unstemmed A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Speed Optimization System to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Emissions for Smart Cities
title_short A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Speed Optimization System to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Emissions for Smart Cities
title_sort deep reinforcement learning based speed optimization system to reduce fuel consumption and emissions for smart cities
topic deep reinforcement learning
fuel consumption reduction
environmental pollution
optimum speed
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/3/1545
work_keys_str_mv AT yıldırayyigit adeepreinforcementlearningbasedspeedoptimizationsystemtoreducefuelconsumptionandemissionsforsmartcities
AT muratkarabatak adeepreinforcementlearningbasedspeedoptimizationsystemtoreducefuelconsumptionandemissionsforsmartcities
AT yıldırayyigit deepreinforcementlearningbasedspeedoptimizationsystemtoreducefuelconsumptionandemissionsforsmartcities
AT muratkarabatak deepreinforcementlearningbasedspeedoptimizationsystemtoreducefuelconsumptionandemissionsforsmartcities