Improving Freeway Merging Efficiency via Flow-Level Coordination of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2024

Freeway on-ramps are typical bottlenecks in the freeway network due to the frequent disturbances caused by their associated merging, weaving, and lane-changing behaviors. With real-time communication and precise motion control, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) provide an opportunity to substantially enhance the traffic operational performance of on-ramp bottlenecks. In this paper, we propose an upper-level control strategy to coordinate the two traffic streams at on-ramp merging through proactive gap creation and platoon formation. The coordination consists of three components: 1) mainline vehicles proactively decelerate to create large merging gaps; 2) ramp vehicles form platoons before entering the main road; 3) the gaps created on the main road and the platoons formed on the ramp are coordinated with each other in terms of size, speed, and arrival time. The coordination is formulated as a constrained optimization problem, incorporating both macroscopic and microscopic traffic flow models. The model uses traffic state parameters as inputs and determines the optimal coordination plan adaptive to real-time traffic conditions. The benefits of the proposed coordination are demonstrated through an illustrative case study. Results show that the coordination is compatible with real-world implementation and can substantially improve the overall efficiency of on-ramp merging, especially under high traffic volume conditions, where recurrent traffic congestion is prevented, and merging throughput increased.

Connected and autonomous vehicles

Optimization

coordinative merging strategy

Traffic control

optimization

freeway on-ramp merging

Trajectory

Real-time systems

Autonomous vehicles

Roads

Merging

microscopic simulation

Författare

Jie Zhu

Chalmers, Arkitektur och samhällsbyggnadsteknik, Geologi och geoteknik

Liang Wang

Tsinghua University

Ivana Tasic

Chalmers, Arkitektur och samhällsbyggnadsteknik, Geologi och geoteknik

Xiaobo Qu

Tsinghua University

IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems

1524-9050 (ISSN) 1558-0016 (eISSN)

Vol. 25 7 6703-6715

Ämneskategorier

Transportteknik och logistik

Infrastrukturteknik

Kommunikationssystem

Reglerteknik

DOI

10.1109/TITS.2023.3346832

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2024-07-20