“Game over” for autonomous shuttles in mixed traffic? Results from field surveys among pedestrians and cyclists on how they interact with autonomous shuttles in real-life traffic in Norway

The influence of perceived safety on the acceptance of autonomous demand responsive transportation services in The Netherlands

Safety and Sustainable Development of Automated Driving in Mixed-Traffic Urban Areas—Considering Vulnerable Road Users and Network Efficiency

Next to environmental aspects, establishing areas for safe and economically viable automated driving in mixed-traffic settings is one major challenge for sustainable development of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). This work investigates safety in the interactions between AVs, human-driven vehicles, and vulnerable road users, including cyclists and...

Heterogeneous fleet sizing for on-demand transport in mixed automated and non-automated urban areas

The era of intelligent transportation with automated vehicles (AVs) is coming. Nonetheless, the transition to this system will be a gradual process. On the one hand, some zones in the city may be dedicated to AVs with a fully intelligent traffic management system geared toward high performance. On the other hand, automated and conventional...

Stopping by looking: A driver-pedestrian interaction study in a coupled simulator using head-mounted displays with eye-tracking

Automated vehicles (AVs) can perform low-level control tasks but are not always capable of proper decision-making. This paper presents a concept of eye-based maneuver control for AV-pedestrian interaction. Previously, it was unknown whether the AV should conduct a stopping maneuver when the driver looks at the pedestrian or looks away from...

A two-agent VR study: the effects of driver eye gaze visualisation on AV-pedestrian interaction

Problem statement. The introduction of automated vehicles (AVs) changes the role of the driver and may cause a lack of social interaction with pedestrians. This study proposes a concept where the AV is manoeuvre-based controlled via eye gaze, and the AV driver’s gaze is visualised for the driver and pedestrians. However, it was unknown if gaze...

Should I Stop or Should I Cross?: Interactions between vulnerable road users and automated vehicles

This dissertation aims to understand the behavior of pedestrians and cyclists when interacting with automated vehicles (AVs). The role of AVs’ characteristics such as their physical appearance, whether a driver is present, the presence of external communication interfaces, and factors pertaining to the behavior of the vehicle were investigated...

Safety implications of the introduction of Autonomous Vehicles on rural roads: An agent-based modeling approach

With the increasing research of autonomous vehicles coming closer to introduction in society, it is necessary to research the effects on traffic safety for the introduction of these types of vehicles for rural roads. A lot of research has been done for the introduction of AVs on highway roads, researching the introduction for rural roads is the...

Automated vehicles (AV) dedicated networks and their effects on the traveling of conventional vehicle drivers

AV subnetworks is a way to deal with automated traffic and its technological need that will likely increase during the AVs deployment period. This strategy carries many benefits, yet some inconveniences are worth to mention. One of them relies on the fact that the design of AV subnetworks is often in practice focused on mitigating congestion...

A method to assess safety implications during authority transitions in automated driving

The question of how well in terms of safety can a driver take over control of an automated vehicle in response to an emergency situation is of crucial importance. Most of the studies performed so far focus on the drivers’ reaction times and the mechanisms behind the transition. In this study, an effort is made to incorporate the braking times...

Platform-based Platooning to Connect Two Autonomous Vehicle Areas

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been successfully applied in closed environments such as ports and industrial zones, while their operation in open areas has a long way to go. The current research is initiated to overcome this limitation by the introduction of platooning as a transfer mode. It investigates a container transportation problem...

A network approach to prioritize conservation efforts for migratory birds

Habitat loss can trigger migration network collapse by isolating migratory bird breeding grounds from nonbreeding grounds. Theoretically, habitat loss can have vastly different impacts depending on the site's importance within the migratory corridor. However, migration‐network connectivity and the impacts of site loss are not completely...

On the impact of vehicle automation on the value of travel time while performing work and leisure activities in a car: Theoretical insights and results from a stated preference survey

Many experts believe the transport system is about to change dramatically. This change is due to so-called fully-automated vehicles (AVs). However, at present, there are numerous important knowledge gaps that need to be solved for the successful integration of AVs in our transport systems, in particular regarding the impacts of AVs on travel...

Assessing the impact of shared and autonomous vehicles on urban traffic: A simulation approach

New developments in the automotive world have the power to change mobility, but because of high uncertainties, municipalities are adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Nonetheless, autonomous, connected and shared vehicle technologies are in a far stage of development and it is only a matter of time before AVs and SAVs enter urban traffic. This...

Direction-of-Arrival Estimation using an Unsynchronized Array Of Acoustic Vector Sensors

Direction-Of-Arrival (DOA) estimation of acoustic signals is of great interest in various applications including battlefield acoustic and noise localization. Acoustic sensors are employed in an array configuration to estimate DOAs based on the time differences of arrival DOAs. However, the acoustic sensors in the network have all their own Data...

Uniaxial Acoustic Vector Sensors for direction-of-arrival estimation

In this paper, a specific reduced-channel Acoustic Vector Sensor (AVS) is proposed comprising one omni-directional microphone and only one particle velocity transducer, such that it can have an arbitrary orientation. Such a reduced transducer configuration is referred to as a Uniaxial AVS (U-AVS). The DOA performance of an array of U-AVSs is...

Towards molecular imaging by means of MRI

The work presented in the thesis is focused on the design of highly efficient contrast agents for molecular imaging by means of MRI based on the detailed physical characterization of the given material. Specifically, attention is paid on the development of contrast agents for magnetic fields higher than 1 Tesla. In Chapter 2 the transversal...