Safety of Automated Driving in Mixed-Traffic Urban Areas

Considering Vulnerable Road Users and Network Efficiency

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

A.J. Pauwels Mechanical Engineering

Contributors

F. Schulte Transport Engineering and Logistics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 1)
N. Pourmohammadzia Transport Engineering and Logistics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 1)
J.K. Moore Biomechatronics & Human-Machine Control - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 2)
R.R. Negenborn Transport Engineering and Logistics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Mechanical Engineering
Copyright: © 2021 Alex Pauwels
Safety Autonomous Vehicles Microscopic Simulation Occlusion Aware Driving Vulnerable Road Users Network Efficiency
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

27-01-2021

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

The establishment of areas for safe automated driving in mixed-traffic settings is one major barrier in the development and adoption of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). This work investigates safety in the interactions between AVs, human-driven vehicles, and vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians in a simulated urban environment in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Proposing new junction and pedestrian models, virtual AVs with an occlusion aware driving system are deployed to deliver cargo autonomously. Assessing the impact of various measures, including V2V, V2I, V2X communications, infrastructure modifications, and driving behavior, we show that traffic safety and network efficiency can be achieved in a living lab setting for the considered case. Our findings further suggest that V2X gets implemented, new buildings are not placed close to intersections, and the speed limit of non-arterial roads is lowered.