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Abstract

</figure></iframe></div></div></figure>The latter part of the constructor and the render() function remain the same.Now comes the most important and complicated part of our code, the move() function. Let us focus on the code for vehicles moving towards the right, as the same conditions are checked for other directions, and the code is quite similar. <figure id="98e0"> <div> <div>

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    </figure></iframe></div></div></figure><p id="7b1c">For each direction, we first check if the vehicle has crossed the intersection or not. This is important because if the vehicle has already crossed, then it can keep moving regardless of the signal being green or red, depending only on the vehicle ahead. So when the vehicle crosses the intersection, we set the value of <i>crossed</i> to 1. Now, if the vehicle goes straight i.e. it does not turn, then we add it to the <i>vehiclesNotTurned</i> list and update its <i>crossedIndex</i>, which is its index in the <i>vehiclesNotTurned</i> list. This is done because the order of the vehicles changes after the intersection as some turn and some do not, and the <i>vehicles</i> list defined earlier is not useful to prevent them from overlapping.</p><p id="339c">Next, if the vehicle is going to turn, it moves straight until the turning point which is the middle of the intersection. This movement can happen in 3 cases:</p><ol><li>If it has not reached its stop point before the intersection</li><li>If it has already crossed the intersection</li><li>If the traffic signal controlling the direction in which the vehicle is moving is Green</li></ol><p id="af07">Along with this, we need to ensure that there is no overlap with the vehicle ahead when it moves. This is decided by taking into consideration the following <b>three parameters</b>: the coordinate of the vehicle ahead, the width/height of the vehicle ahead, and the <i>movingGap</i>. Also, if the vehicle ahead has already turned, then we need not worry about overlap. Only when any of these three conditions are satisfied along with no overlap, the coordinate of the vehicle is updated by incrementing/decrementing it by the speed of the vehicle, depending on its direction of motion.</p><p id="f76b">Once the vehicle crosses its turning point, if the <i>turned</i> value is 0, it turns as it rotates while moving along both the x and y-axis. Once the <i>rotationAngle</i> is 90 degrees, the <i>turned</i> variable is set to 1, the vehicle is added to the <i>vehiclesTurned</i> list, and its <i>crossedIndex</i> is updated. Else if the <i>turned </i>value is 1, the vehicle moves only if there is a sufficient gap to the vehicle ahead, found using the <i>vehiclesTurned</i> list. This is decided based on the same three parameters mentioned above. This turning logic is coded separately for the two lanes to have more control over the simulation.</p><blockquote id="5d31"><p>This is where the originalImage is used. Rotating an image is considered a destructive transform. This means that every time it is performed, the image loses pixel data. For this reason, it is better to re-transform the original image than to keep transforming an image multiple times. Thus, we rotate the originalImage by rotationAngle and update the image by this modified image, while keeping the originalImage unchanged.</p></blockquote><p id="b6e4">Lastly, if the vehicle is not going to turn, then the first part remains the same as the turning vehicles, and they move straight until they cross the intersection. However, after crossing the intersection, they simply move if there is a sufficient gap to the vehicle ahead, found using the <i>vehiclesNotTurned</i> list. Again, this is decided based on the three parameters mentioned above.</p><p id="7aea">The entire <i>move()</i> function is given below. Note that this function is also a part of the <i>Vehicle</i> class defined above and needs to be indented accordingly.</p>
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    </figure></iframe></div></div></figure><h2 id="9a13">Creating objects of TrafficSignal class</h2><p id="a920">We need to modify the <i>initialize</i>() function so that the 4 <i>TrafficSignal</i> objects are initialized with random values between the range specified by <i>randomGreenSignalTimerRange</i> if <i>randomGreenSignalTime</i> is set to True.</p><div id="9fdf"><pre>def initialize():
<span class="hljs-keyword">min</span>Time = <span class="hljs-keyword">random</span>GreenSignalTimerRange[<span class="hljs-number">0</span>]
<span class="hljs-keyword">max</span>Time = <span class="hljs-keyword">random</span>GreenSignalTimerRange[<span class="hljs-number">1</span>]
if(<span class="hljs-keyword">random</span>GreenSignalTimer):
    ts1 = TrafficSignal(<span class="hljs-number">0</span>, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Yellow, <span class="hljs-keyword">random</span>.randint(<span class="hljs-keyword">min</span>Time,<span class="hljs-keyword">max</span>Time))
    signals.append(ts1)
    ts2 = TrafficSignal(ts1.yellow+ts1.green, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Yellow, <span class="hljs-keyword">random</span>.randint(<span class="hljs-keyword">min</span>Time,<span class="hljs-keyword">max</span>Time))
    signals.append(ts2)
    ts3 = TrafficSignal(<span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Red, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Yellow, <span class="hljs-keyword">random</span>.randint(<span class="hljs-keyword">min</span>Time,<span class="hljs-keyword">max</span>Time))
    signals.append(ts3)
    ts4 = TrafficSignal(<span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Red, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Yellow, <span class="hljs-keyword">random</span>.randint(<span class="hljs-keyword">min</span>Time,<span class="hljs-keyword">max</span>Time))
    signals.append(ts4)
else:
    ts1 = TrafficSignal(<span class="hljs-number">0</span>, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Yellow, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Green[<span class="hljs-number">0</span>])
    signals.append(ts1)
    ts2 = TrafficSignal(ts1.yellow+ts1.green, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Yellow, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Green[<span class="hljs-number">1</span>])
    signals.append(ts2)
    ts3 = TrafficSignal(<span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Red, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Yellow, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Green[<span class="hljs-number">2</span>])
    signals.append(ts3)
    ts4 = TrafficSignal(<span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Red, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Yellow, <span class="hljs-keyword">default</span>Green[<span class="hljs-number">3</span>])
    signals.append(ts4)
repeat()</pre></div><h2 id="204c">repeat() function</h2><p id="0b4e">The same applies to the <i>repeat</i>() function as well. The only change is that if <i>randomGreenSignalTimer</i> is set to True, we generate a random number between <i>randomGreenSignalTimerRange</i>[0] and <i>randomGreenSignalTimerRange</i>[1], and set it as the green signal time.</p><div id="8e72"><pre>def repeat():
global currentGreen, currentYellow, nextGreen
while(signals[currentGreen].green&gt;<span class="hljs-number">0</span>):
    updateValues()
    time.sleep(<span class="hljs-number">1</span>)
currentYellow = <span class="hljs-number">1</span>   
for i in range(<span class="hljs-number">0</span>,<span class="hljs-number"

Options

3): for vehicle in vehicles[directionNumbers[currentGreen]][i]: vehicle.stop=defaultStop[directionNumbers[currentGreen]] while(signals[currentGreen].yellow>0):
updateValues() time.sleep(1) currentYellow = 0
minTime = randomGreenSignalTimerRange[0] maxTime = randomGreenSignalTimerRange[1] if(randomGreenSignalTimer): signals[currentGreen].green=random.randint(minTime, maxTime) else: signals[currentGreen].green = defaultGreen[currentGreen] signals[currentGreen].yellow = defaultYellow signals[currentGreen].red = defaultRed currentGreen = nextGreen nextGreen = (currentGreen+1)%noOfSignals signals[nextGreen].red = signals[currentGreen].yellow+signals[currentGreen].green repeat()</pre></div><h2 id="1f88">generateVehicles() function</h2>The generateVehicles() function is modified as shown below. The vehicle type is set by generating a random number from allowedVehicleTypesList. This list is populated in the Main class below. We define a new variable will_turn, which is initially set to 0. will_turn is then set to 1 with a 40% chance using random numbers. Lastly, in addition to the existing variables, this will_turn variable is also passed in the constructor while creating an object of the Vehicle class.<div id="8de5"><pre>def generateVehicles(): while(True): vehicle_type = random.choice(allowedVehicleTypesList) lane_number = random.randint(1,2) will_turn = 0 if(lane_number == 1): temp = random.randint(0,99) if(temp<40): will_turn = 1 elif(lane_number == 2): temp = random.randint(0,99) if(temp<40): will_turn = 1 temp = random.randint(0,99) direction_number = 0 dist = [25,50,75,100] if(temp<dist[0]): direction_number = 0 elif(temp<dist[1]): direction_number = 1 elif(temp<dist[2]): direction_number = 2 elif(temp<dist[3]): direction_number = 3 Vehicle(lane_number, vehicleTypes[vehicle_type], direction_number, directionNumbers[direction_number], will_turn) time.sleep(1)</pre></div><h2 id="726d">Main class</h2>There is only one small addition here. We just need to populate the allowedVehicleTypesList according to the allowedVehicleTypes dictionary. For this, the following code needs to be added right at the beginning of the Main class, as shown below. The rest of the Main class remains the same.<div id="4cc3"><pre>class Main: global allowedVehicleTypesList i = 0 for vehicleType in allowedVehicleTypes: if(allowedVehicleTypes[vehicleType]): allowedVehicleTypesList.append(i) i += 1</pre></div><h1 id="a2bc">Running the code</h1>Time to see the results. Fire up a cmd/terminal and run the command:<div id="5888"><pre>$ python simulation.py</pre></div><figure id="01b9"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*dhRA3M5L5pH5rmUsqdLueg.png"><figcaption>Snapshot of final simulation output showing vehicles turning</figcaption></figure><figure id="004b"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*FwYlT4MUI2OLs4g5FLwhdg.png"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><figure id="320a"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*GSJwZxuK8chZmw7QlXNhug.png"><figcaption>Snapshots showing simulation with: (i) Cars only, (ii) Heavy vehicles only (Buses and Trucks)</figcaption></figure>And we are done! We have added the three additional features — turning functionality, vehicle type controller, and random green signal timer function — to our simulation. This makes the simulation more representative of the real-life scenarios and gives us more control to customize it, thus serving as a handy tool for data analysis as well as AI or ML applications.Source code: <a href="https://github.com/mihir-m-gandhi/Traffic-Intersection-Simulation-with-Turns"></a><a href="https://github.com/mihir-m-gandhi/Traffic-Intersection-Simulation-with-Turns">https://github.com/mihir-m-gandhi/Traffic-Intersection-Simulation-with-Turns</a>This is the second part in a series of articles:<ul><li><a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/traffic-intersection-simulation-using-pygame-689d6bd7687a">Traffic Intersection Simulation using Pygame, Part 1</a></li><li><a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/traffic-intersection-simulation-using-pygame-part-2-9ce512fdb253">Traffic Intersection Simulation using Pygame, Part 2</a></li><li><a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/traffic-intersection-simulation-using-pygame-part-3-98159178ef30">Traffic Intersection Simulation using Pygame, Part 3</a></li></ul>This simulation was developed as part of a research project titled ‘Smart Control of Traffic Lights using Artificial Intelligence’. Check out its demonstration video <a href="https://youtu.be/OssY5pzOyo0">here</a>. This research work was presented at IEEE International Conference on Recent Advances and Innovations in Engineering (ICRAIE) 2020 and published in IEEE Xplore. Read the paper here.Thanks for reading! I hope this article was helpful. If you have any doubts or need further clarification, feel free to reach out to me on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mihir-gandhi-0706/">LinkedIn</a>.</article></body>

How Self-Compassion Can Transform Your Life

And 3 Ways to Start Practicing It Today

A healthy self-image is an important component of our mental and physical well-being. The way we view ourselves ultimately reflects in all of our interactions with others. It affects how we treat our loved ones as well as strangers. In turn, they will then either treat us based on how we make them feel. Our perception of these interactions filters back to our own self-image, completing the feedback loop.

Through cultivating more compassion for ourselves, we have the ability to improve not only our interactions with others, but also our own mental well-being.

Many of us find it much easier to feel compassion toward others than ourselves. Yet without including ourselves, we hamper our ability to feel the depths of our own kindness and inner strength.

EXTENDING THE CONCEPT OF COMPASSION TO OURSELVES

When we feel compassion towards another, we understand our common humanity and our shared desire for peace and happiness. When we think of the suffering going on in the world, we may feel pain or discomfort. This often sparks the desire to help alleviate the suffering when we can — this is compassion wanting to turn itself into action.

Self-compassion is a way for us to accept and embrace all aspects of our humanity, including our weaknesses.

Just as everyone in the world desires peace and happiness, so do we. Everyone has had to deal with challenges and face their own shadows. We are no exception. In realizing this, it becomes easier to accept the fact that we may still have habits, traits, or attitudes that hold us back from moving towards our highest vision of ourselves.

“You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress, simultaneously.” — Sophia Bush

MORE POWER THAN SELF-ESTEEM

Self-compassion is a concept that is broader than self-esteem. We often try to cultivate more self-esteem without acknowledging the part of us that we do not like. Our inner critic remains alive and well as we then judge ourselves when we don’t accomplish what we had set out to do. It is often at this time, that self-compassion can become a great tool to help us feel inner peace.

Self-compassion focuses not only on celebrating our accomplishments, but also on accepting the parts of us we are still working on. It allows us to accept ourselves in our full humanity. In that acceptance lies tremendous power.

Acceptance is the doorway to change. When we accept something as it is, we immediately create a space from which we can change it. If we don’t own our weaknesses, they own us. We build up mental blocks that prevent us from moving forward in new directions.

“[Self-compassion] is a courageous mental attitude that stands up to harm, including the discomfort that we unwittingly inflict on ourselves through self-criticism, self-isolation, and self-rumination when things go wrong. Self-compassion provides emotional strength and resilience, allowing us to admit our shortcomings, forgive ourselves, and respond to ourselves and others with care and respect, and be fully human.” — Dr. Kristin Neff

5 WAYS SELF-COMPASSION CAN IMPROVE YOUR WELL-BEING AND TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE

Self-compassion brings numerous benefits to our emotional well-being. Dr. Kristin Neff from the University of Texas has done vast amounts of research on this topic.

Her findings show the following benefits of self-compassion:

Helps decrease anxiety and depression.
Increases resilience, improving our ability to handle challenges and difficult emotions.
Promotes healthy habits such as better diet and exercise routines. This is because we learn to motivate ourselves with kindness rather than criticism.
Increases our ability to savor and appreciate ourselves and those around us, leading to greater levels of life satisfaction.
Can lead to higher quality of relationships as we cultivate more compassion for others and learn to respond to them with more kindness and patience.

The more we understand our own fears, the better equipped we are to overcome them. When we are able to view our own weaknesses without criticism and judgment, we have the power to choose to act from a place of our strengths.

SELF-COMPASSION AS A MOTIVATION BOOSTER

Self-compassion and a desire to grow beyond our limits are not mutually exclusive. When we accept ourselves, we can consciously redirect our mental energy away from our weaknesses and towards our strengths.

If we often face self-doubt, for example, we may allow hesitation to hold us back from moving in a new direction. When self-compassion is brought into the equation, we accept our self-doubt and focus our energy on its opposite — confidence. As we direct our mental energy to feelings of confidence, we start doing little things that help us see the confidence we already have within. Every time we move past our comfort zone, we strengthen the neural networks of confidence and weaken the neural networks of self-doubt.

3 WAYS TO START PRACTICING SELF-COMPASSION TODAY

Self-compassion, just as any other character trait, can be learned. Thanks to neuroplasticity, we can rewire our brains to change our own self-image over time.

Here are 3 ways you can strengthen the habit of seeing yourself in a more positive light:

1. Observe your own self-talk

Do you talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend or do you tend to be your own worst critic? When you catch yourself being judgemental and critical of yourself, try to think of what your best friend would say to you instead. Perhaps flip the situation around — if your best friend was in the situation or mood that you’re in, how would you talk to them? Learn to treat yourself more like you would treat your best friend.

2. Keep track of your strengths

Start writing down and celebrating your personal wins and accomplishments, no matter how trivial they may seem. Bring your attention to the character traits that allowed you to accomplish these. Notice all the wonderful things about yourself that are “right.” When you find yourself in a difficult situation or when that inner critic comes out, bring these to mind.

3. Visualize your day unfolding with more self-compassion

Start your morning with a visualization practice to prime your neural networks to notice opportunities to act with more compassion throughout the day. You can do this in a myriad of ways — the key is to focus on thoughts of compassion for yourself and others long enough until you start to feel the feelings.

1. Focus on the feeling of love, kindness, and compassion.

2. Start with yourself - wishing yourself peace and joy. Know that when you are at peace, you will be able to radiate out to others.

3. Extend your well-wishes out to others. Start with your family, community, and neighborhood. Extend this out until you feel a sense of loving-kindness for all sentient-beings. Let the feeling wash over your whole body.

Start your day from this attitude. Remain mindful throughout the day as situations arise — they may be the perfect opportunities to practice turning your inner critic into the voice of your best friend.

Self-compassion is a powerful tool. The more you integrate it into your life, the more you will notice an improved sense of well-being and satisfaction.