TY - Generic T1 - Real-Time Distance Estimation and Filtering of Vehicle Headways for Smoothing of Traffic Waves T2 - International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems 2019 Y1 - 2019 A1 - Rahul Bhadani A1 - Matthew Bunting A1 - Benjamin Seibold A1 - Raphael E Stern A1 - Shumo Cui A1 - Jonathan Sprinkle A1 - Benedetto Piccoli A1 - Daniel B. Work KW - autonomous vehicles KW - Digital Filter KW - simulation KW - Traffic AB -

In this paper, we describe an experience report and field deployment of real-time filtering algorithms used with a robotic vehicle to smooth emergent traffic waves. When smoothing these waves in simulation, a common approach is to implement controllers that utilize headway, relative velocity and even acceleration from smooth ground truth information, rather than from realistic data. As a result, many results may be limited in their impact when considering the dynamics of the vehicle under control and the discretized nature of the laser data as well as its periodic arrival. Our approach discusses trade-offs in estimation accuracy to provide both distance and velocity estimates, with ground-truth hardware-in-the-loop tests with a robotic car. The contribution of the work enabled an experiment with 21 vehicles, including the robotic car closing the loop at up to 8.0 m/s with this filtered estimate, stressing the importance of an algorithm that can deliver real-time results with acceptable accuracy for the safety of the drivers in the experiment.

 

JF - International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems 2019 CY - Montreal, Canada UR - https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3302509.3314026 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Dissipation of Emergent Traffic Waves in Stop-and-Go Traffic Using a Supervisory Controller T2 - 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control Y1 - 2018 A1 - Rahul Bhadani A1 - Benedetto Piccoli A1 - Benjamin Seibold A1 - Jonathan Sprinkle A1 - Daniel B. Work KW - autonomous vehicles KW - CPS KW - Traffic AB -

This paper presents the use of a quadratic band controller in an autonomous vehicle (AV) to regulate emergent traffic waves resulting from traffic congestion. The controller dampens the emergent traffic waves through modulating its velocity according to the relative distance and velocity of the immediately preceding vehicle in the flow. At the same time, it prevents any collision within the range specified by the design parameters. The approach is based on a configurable quadratic band that allows smooth transitions between (i) no modification to the desired velocity; (ii) braking to match the speed of the preceding vehicle; and (iii) braking to avoid collision with the lead vehicle. By assuming that the lead vehicle's velocity will be oscillatory, the controller's smooth transition between modes permits any vehicle following the AV to have a smoother reference velocity. The configurable quadratic band allows design parameters, such as actuator and computation delays as well as the dynamics of vehicle deceleration, to be taken into account when constructing the controller. Experimental data, software-in-the-loop distributed simulation, and results from physical platform performance in an experiment with 21 human-driven vehicles are presented. Analysis shows that the design parameters used in constructing the quadratic band controller are met, and assumptions regarding the oscillatory nature of emergent traffic waves are valid. 

JF - 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control PB - IEEE CY - Fontainbleau, Miami Beach, USA VL - 57 UR - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8619700 ER - TY - CONF T1 - Controlling for Unsafe Events in Dense Traffic Through Autonomous Vehicles: Invited Talk Abstract T2 - Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Safe Control of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Y1 - 2017 A1 - Daniel B. Work A1 - Raphael E Stern A1 - Fangyu Wu A1 - Miles Churchill A1 - Shumo Cui A1 - Hannah Pohlmann A1 - Benjamin Seibold A1 - Benedetto Piccoli A1 - Rahul Bhadani A1 - Matthew Bunting A1 - Jonathan Sprinkle A1 - Maria Laura Dell Monache A1 - Nathaniel Hamilton A1 - Haulcy, R. KW - Sugiyama experiment KW - Traffic flow JF - Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Safe Control of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles PB - ACM CY - New York, NY, USA SN - 978-1-4503-4976-5 UR - http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3055378.3055380 ER -