The development of intelligent transportation has generated many ultra reliable low latency communication (URLLC) tasks, which require sufficient communication and computation resources for task offloading and processing. Although mobile edge computing (MEC) provides a promising solution, its efficiency is subject to the limited knowledge and analysis capability on the physical networks. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a digital twin (DT) empowered MEC framework to strengthen the MEC task offloading efficiency in cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) networks. Our proposed DT is constructed through a hybrid data-driven and model-driven approach to capture the realistic transportation network features. Then, DT leverages the metric of time to collision to predict vehicular safety levels and estimates the corresponding URLLC task requirements of future time slots. The prediction results are further utilized to make decisions on the URLLC resource reservation. Different from conventional studies, we consider the influence of DT's inaccurate predictions (i.e., the prediction with error) on the resource allocations. Specifically, the inaccurate DT prediction results are considered as uncertain constraints of the resource reservation problem. A robust parameter from the robust optimization is adopted to adjust the tradeoff between the problem uncertainty and solution optimality degree. Further, we leverage the optimized resource reservation results to construct the task offloading problem. The problem is decoupled into two sub-problems of channel resource allocation and computation resource allocation, respectively. And a two-stage matching algorithm is developed to solve each sub-problem based on the resource reservation constraints. Finally, realistic road information is mapped into DT for simulations. Simulation results validate the advantages of our proposed approach by comparing with existing schemes.

Intelligent vehicle cyberphysical systems can integrate real-time traffic scene perception with built-in high-definition maps to construct digital twins of real-world signalized intersections. Based on digital twins, this paper presents a traffic prediction method named cell transformer (cell-trans), comprising vehicle-, cell-, and road-level encoders and a decoder. The vehicle-level encoder first converts vehicle features into vehicle encodings, which the cell-level encoder then fuses with lane segment features to generate cell encodings. Next, the road-level encoder treats the connectivity between lane segments and the phase information at signalized intersections as a dynamic directed graph, extracting spatial-temporal evolution patterns to improve traffic predictions. The cell-trans is compared with baseline models on pNEUMA and CitySim data sets, and the performance comparison validates its optimal predictive accuracy. Moreover, the outstanding performance of the cell-trans is confirmed by ablation study, parameter analysis, and computational efficiency analysis. Finally, this paper develops a cell-trans-based motion planner for autonomous vehicles (AV) in a joint simulation platform combined CARLA and SUMO to indicate its contributions to AVs.

The future trajectories of surrounding agents are critical for the motion planning and control of autonomous vehicles. Thus, this study employs Transformer to develop a multi-agent trajectory prediction model named Multi-agent Trajectory Vector Transformer (MaTVT). MaTVT features a lightweight architecture, comprising a dual-level encoder formed by a low-level encoder and a high-level encoder, along with a multi-modal decoder. Once input enters MaTVT, the low-level encoder first constructs polar coordinate systems centered on target agents and then projects historical trajectories and map elements to each agent-centered coordinate system. Next, it utilizes attention mechanisms to encode motion features, agent-agent interactions, and agent-infrastructure constraints independently and fuses them into the agent encoding sequence. Considering the agent response delay, the low-level encoder extracts heterogeneous spatial-temporal features from agent encoding sequences as the local encodings for target agents. Afterward, the high-level encoder treats all agents as the nodes in a directed graph and utilizes a Graph Attention Network to convert inter-agent relationships into global encodings, which are fused with the local encodings of target agents. Finally, the multi-modal decoder translates these fusion encodings into multi-modal trajectory predictions for target agents. This study selects complex traffic scenarios from the Argoverse Motion Forecasting dataset to create a dedicated dataset for MaTVT training, validation, and testing. The test results demonstrate that MaTVT outperforms advanced benchmark methods in prediction performance, revealing its superb accuracy, efficiency, and robustness. In addition, ablation studies further explain the interpretability of the main functional components of MaTVT and their contributions to prediction performance.

The integration of automated vehicles (AVs) into transportation systems presents an unprecedented opportunity to enhance road safety and efficiency. However, understanding the interactions between AVs and human-driven vehicles (HVs) at intersections remains an open research question. This study aims to bridge this gap by examining behavioral differences and adaptations of AVs and HVs at unsignalized intersections by utilizing two large-scale AV datasets from Waymo and Lyft. By using a systematic methodology, the research identifies and analyzes merging and crossing conflicts by calculating key safety and efficiency metrics, including time to collision, post-encroachment time, maximum required deceleration, time advantage, and speed and acceleration profiles. Through this approach, the study assesses the safety and efficiency implications of these behavioral differences and adaptations for mixed-autonomy traffic. The findings reveal a paradox: while AVs maintain larger safety margins, their conservative behavior can lead to unexpected situations for human drivers, potentially causing unsafe conditions. From a performance point of view, human drivers tend to exhibit more consistent behavior when interacting with AVs versus other HVs, suggesting AVs may contribute to harmonizing traffic flow patterns. Moreover, notable differences were observed between Waymo and Lyft vehicles, which highlights the importance of considering manufacturer-specific AV behaviors in traffic modeling and management strategies for the safe integration of AVs. The processed dataset, as well as the developed algorithms and scripts, are openly published to foster research on AV–HV interactions.

This study utilized Virtual Reality (VR) experiments to investigate pedestrian-autonomous vehicle interaction in shared spaces. In the VR experiment, pedestrians attempt to cross the road under different conditions, including the presence of another pedestrian, different external Human-Machin-Interfaces, AV driving styles, and road conditions. We employed an innovative VR setup that enabled two pedestrians to interact in real time with physical movements within an immersive VR environment. Overall, we found that the presence of multiple pedestrians significantly influenced pedestrian movement dynamics during road crossing. Additionally, the relative standing position had a significant impact on the distant pedestrians regarding time before crossing and vehicle-gazing behavior. While previous studies predominantly focused on pedestrian-AV interaction with a single pedestrian, this study takes an important step forward in terms of theory, methods, and relevance by considering interactions between multiple pedestrians and AVs. The findings establish a basis for further exploration of pedestrian-AV interaction in shared space.