Agent-based simulation optimization model for road surface maintenance scheme

Road surface maintenance is a difficult problem in traffic management due to the interference with traffic. Considering the irrational road surface maintenance scheme in practice, a bilevel simulation-optimization model is proposed in this paper. The decision-making variable of the upper-level model was the road surface maintenance scheme, while the objective was to minimize the total travel time and maintenance cost. Meanwhile, the lower-level model was designed to assign traffic flows, where cars choose their best route in real time at the intersections according to the utility function to make the model more realistic. The local branching algorithm and NetLogo simulation were applied respectively in the upper and lower models. A numerical test was employed to validate the proposed model. As results show, the bilevel programming model in this paper performs well in reducing the total travel time of travelers and improving the service level of road surface maintenance. The proposed model provides good feasibility and is a good reference for road managers and the decision making of actual road maintenance managers.