A Hybrid Submicroscopic-Microscopic Traffic Flow Simulation Framework

Current lane-based microscopic traffic simulators combine car-following and lane changing logic to describe the (often discrete) lateral vehicle motion on multi-lane road segments. However, the simulated lateral trajectories are physically unplausible and inside-lane behavior such as lane-keeping and curve negotiation cannot be modelled. In this...

Comparative Safety Assessment of Automated Driving Strategies at Highway Merges in Mixed Traffic

We present a simulation-based approach to assess the safety impacts of vehicles equipped with Automated Driving Systems (ADS) in mixed traffic with Human-driven Vehicles (HV). Specifically, we compare two generic longitudinal strategies of ADS to handle a cut-in: Reactive ADS acting only when the cut-in vehicle crosses the target lane boundary,...

Probabilistic field approach for motorway driving risk assessment

We present an approach to assess the risk taken by on-road vehicles within the framework of artificial field theory, envisioned for safety analysis and design of driving support/automation applications. Here, any obstacle (neighboring entity on the road) to the subject vehicle is treated as a finite scalar risk field that is formulated in the...

Empirics and models of fragmented lane changes

Existing microscopic traffic models represent the lane-changing maneuver as a continuous and uninterrupted lateral movement of the vehicle from its original to the target lane. We term this representation as Continuous Lane-Changing (CLC). Recent empirical studies find that not all lane-changing maneuvers are continuous; the lane-changer may...

Benefits and risks of truck platooning on freeway operations near entrance ramp

Truck platooning attracts considerable attention thanks to the promising fuel consumption benefits and business model. Nevertheless, concerns over the influence of long truck platoons on other traffic are raised by road operators. It is intriguing to understand under what conditions truck platooning will influence other traffic and what are...

Submicroscopic framework to model mixed highway traffic

Comparative assessment of safety indicators for vehicle trajectories on the highway

Safety measurement and analysis have been a challenging and well-researched topic in transportation. Conventionally, surrogate safety measures have been used as safety indicators in simulation models for safety assessment, in control formulations for driver assistance systems, and in data analysis of naturalistic driving studies. However,...

Optimal lane change times and accelerations of autonomous and connected vehicles

This contribution puts forward a flexible approach to model the decision-making or design controller for automated driving systems, where tactical-level lane change decisions and control-level accelerations are jointly evaluated based on iteratively solving an online optimization problem. The key idea is that automated vehicles determine lane...

Delay-compensating strategy to enhance string stability of adaptive cruise controlled vehicles

A novel strategy to enhance string stability of autonomous vehicles with sensor delay and actuator lag is proposed based on a model predictive control framework. To compensate sensor delay, the approach entails estimating the (unknown) system state at the current time using the system state in a previous time, the applied control history and a...

Design and analysis of full range adaptive cruise control with integrated collision a voidance strategy

Current Full Range Adaptive Cruise Control (FRACC) systems switch between separate adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance systems. This can lead to jerky responses and discomfort during the transition between the two control modes. We propose a Full Range Adaptive Cruise Control (FRACC) design integrating adaptive cruise control and...