%0 Conference Proceedings %B International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems 2019 %D 2019 %T Real-Time Distance Estimation and Filtering of Vehicle Headways for Smoothing of Traffic Waves %A Rahul Bhadani %A Matthew Bunting %A Benjamin Seibold %A Raphael E Stern %A Shumo Cui %A Jonathan Sprinkle %A Benedetto Piccoli %A Daniel B. Work %K autonomous vehicles %K Digital Filter %K simulation %K Traffic %X

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.

 

%B International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems 2019 %7 10 %C Montreal, Canada %8 04/2019 %G eng %U https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3302509.3314026 %R 10.1145/3302509.3314026 %0 Conference Proceedings %B 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control %D 2018 %T Dissipation of Emergent Traffic Waves in Stop-and-Go Traffic Using a Supervisory Controller %A Rahul Bhadani %A Benedetto Piccoli %A Benjamin Seibold %A Jonathan Sprinkle %A Daniel B. Work %K autonomous vehicles %K CPS %K Traffic %X

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. 

%B 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control %I IEEE %C Fontainbleau, Miami Beach, USA %V 57 %G eng %U https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8619700 %R 10.1109/CDC.2018.8619700 %0 Conference Paper %B Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Safe Control of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles %D 2017 %T Controlling for Unsafe Events in Dense Traffic Through Autonomous Vehicles: Invited Talk Abstract %A Daniel B. Work %A Raphael E Stern %A Fangyu Wu %A Miles Churchill %A Shumo Cui %A Hannah Pohlmann %A Benjamin Seibold %A Benedetto Piccoli %A Rahul Bhadani %A Matthew Bunting %A Jonathan Sprinkle %A Maria Laura Dell Monache %A Nathaniel Hamilton %A Haulcy, R. %K Sugiyama experiment %K Traffic flow %B Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Safe Control of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles %I ACM %C New York, NY, USA %P 7–7 %@ 978-1-4503-4976-5 %G eng %U http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3055378.3055380 %R 10.1145/3055378.3055380