Cooperative Vehicle Research Articles

An Urban Traffic Management System based on Vehicle Cooperation

The next generation of smart cities will rely on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs) due to the increased complexity and dynamism of traffic caused by continuous urbanization and population growth. The traditional techniques to deal with these challenges are expensive and have a great impact on people's lives and, in this scenario, the introduction of computational and technological solutions is necessary. In order to minimize the problems caused by congestion in urban centers, we present Let Me Know, a traffic management system inspired by the communication among vehicles that allows the request and availability of information related to vehicular traffic. The vehicles request information in order to update a distributed database containing momentary analyzes of road traffic. Through extensive performance analysis, we show our system's ability to reduce traffic congestion with a low impact on the network.

Cooperative vehicle platoon control considering longitudinal and lane-changing dynamics*

This paper presents a distributed cascade Proportional Integral Derivate (DCPID) control algorithm for the connected and automated vehicle (CAV) platoon considering the heterogeneity of CAVs. Furthermore, a real-time cooperative lane-changing model for CAVs, which can seamlessly combine the DCPID algorithm and sine function is developed. The DCPID algorithm determines the appropriate longitudinal acceleration and speed of the lane-changing vehicle considering the speed fluctuations of the front vehicle on the target lane (TFV). In the meantime, the sine function plans a reference trajectory which is further updated in real time using the model predictive control (MPC) to avoid potential collisions. Simulation results indicate that the DCPID algorithm can provide robust control for tracking and adjusting the desired spacing and velocity for all 400 scenarios. Besides, the proposed cooperative lane-changing model can guarantee effective and safe lane changing with different speeds and even in emergency situations.

An RSU Deployment Scheme for Vehicle-Infrastructure Cooperated Autonomous Driving

For autonomous driving vehicles, there are currently some issues, such as limited environmental awareness and locally optimal decision-making. To increase the capacity of autonomous cars’ environmental awareness, computation, decision-making, control, and execution, intelligent roads must be constructed, and vehicle–infrastructure cooperative technology must be used. The Roadside unit (RSU) deployment, a critical component of vehicle–infrastructure cooperative autonomous driving, has a direct impact on network performance, operation effects, and control accuracy. The current RSU deployment mostly uses the large-spacing and low-density concept because of the expensive installation and maintenance costs, which can accomplish the macroscopic and long-term communication functions but fall short of precision vehicle control. Given these challenges, this paper begins with the specific requirements to control intelligent vehicles in the cooperative vehicle–infrastructure environment. An RSU deployment scheme, based on the improved multi-objective quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (MOQPSO) algorithm, is proposed. This RSU deployment scheme was based on the maximum coverage with time threshold problem (MCTTP), with the goal of minimizing the number of RSUs and maximizing vehicle coverage of communication and control services. Finally, utilizing the independently created open simulation platform (OSP) simulation system, the model and algorithm’s viability and effectiveness were assessed on the Nguyen–Dupuis road network. The findings demonstrate that the suggested RSU deployment scheme can enhance network performance and control the precision of vehicle–infrastructure coordination, and can serve as a general guide for the deployment of RSUs in the same application situation.

A Cooperative Lane Change Control Strategy for Connected and Automated Vehicles by Considering Preceding Vehicle Switching

The cooperative lane change among several connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) provides ideas for enhancing the traffic safety and efficiency issues caused by lane changes. However, most of the existing studies mainly focus on the independent analysis of the lateral and longitudinal movements of the lane change without considering the impact of the lateral motion on the longitudinal motion. These works usually assume that the target tracking-preceding vehicles are determined for both the lane change vehicle and the following cooperative vehicle in the target lane. This work proposes a model predictive control (MPC)-based cooperative lane change (CLC) control strategy by considering the preceding vehicle switching and the correlation between the lateral and longitudinal motions. It builds the lateral movement based on the appropriate function curve and integrates this lateral movement in the construction of the coordinated longitudinal motion control strategy by using a set of linear piecewise functions in the design of constraints and objective function of the optimization model to provide smooth preceding vehicles switch. An advanced optimization solver is used to solve the optimization control problem step by step. The proposed strategy is validated based on numerical comparative experiments with two typical lane-changing scenarios. The results show that the proposed control strategy can smoothly complete the preceding vehicle switching during the lane change and quickly realize the stable tracking of the target lane vehicles after changing lanes.

Optimized planning of chargers for electric vehicles in distribution grids including PV self‐consumption and cooperative vehicle owners

AbstractThis paper presents a mathematical model to site and size the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs) in a distribution grid to minimize the required capital investments and maximize self‐consumption of local PV generation jointly. The formulation accounts for the operational constraints of the distribution grid (nodal voltages, line currents, and transformers' ratings) and the recharging times of the EVs. It explicitly models the EV owners' flexibility in plugging and unplugging their vehicles to and from a charger to enable optimal utilization of the charging infrastructure and improve self‐consumption (cooperative EV owners). The problem is formulated as a mixed‐integer linear program (MILP), where nonlinear grid constraints are approximated with linearized grid models.

Performance Modelling and Quantitative Analysis of Vehicular Edge Computing With Bursty Task Arrivals

The quantitative performance analysis plays a critical role in assessing the capability of vehicular edge computing (VEC) systems to meet the requirements of vehicular applications. However, developing accurate analytical models for VEC systems is extremely challenging due to the unique features of intelligent vehicular applications. Specifically, recent work revealed that the tasks generated by intelligent vehicular applications exhibit a high degree of burstiness, rendering the existing models that were designed based on the assumption of the non-bursty Poisson process unsuitable for VEC systems. To fill this gap, we developed an original analytical model to investigate the performance of VEC systems with bursty task arrivals. To facilitate vehicle cooperation, a new priority-based resource allocation scheme is exploited to schedule the tasks of vehicular applications, which are modelled by a Markov Modulated Poisson Process (MMPP). Next, a multi-state Markov chain is established to investigate the impact of load sharing strategy on the performance of VEC systems. Then, the end-to-end transmission latency is derived based on the proposed model. Comprehensive experiments are conducted to validate the accuracy of this analytical model under various system configurations. Furthermore, the developed model is used as a cost-effective tool to investigate the performance bottleneck of VEC systems.

A Contention-Free Cooperative MAC Protocol for Eliminating Heterogenous Collisions in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), efficient data dissemination to a specified number of vehicles with minimum collisions and limited access delay is critical for accident prevention in road safety. However, packet collisions have a significant impact on access delay, and they may lead to unanticipated link failure when a range of diversified collisions are combined due to complex traffic conditions and rapid changes in network topology. In this paper, we propose a distributed contention-free cooperative medium access control (CFC-MAC) protocol to reduce heterogenous collisions and unintended access delay in stochastic traffic scenarios. Firstly, we develop a cooperative communication system model and cooperative forwarding mechanism to explore the optimum road path between the source and destination by identifying the potential cooperative vehicles. Secondly, we propose a vectorized trajectory estimation mechanism to suppress merging collisions by identifying the relative velocity of vehicles with different speeds in a specific time interval. Based on the case study, typical heterogeneous collisions and aggregated heterogeneous collisions at dissociated positions and associated positions are investigated. In both cases, we propose the corresponding collision-resolving mechanisms by methodically recapturing the colliding time slot or acquiring the available free time slots after identifying the access vehicles and comparing the received signal strengths. Performance analysis for collision probability and access delay is conducted. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed protocol can achieve deterministic access delay and a minimal collision rate, substantially outperforming the existing solutions.

Multiple vehicle cooperation and collision avoidance in automated vehicles: survey and an AI-enabled conceptual framework

Prospective customers are becoming more concerned about safety and comfort as the automobile industry swings toward automated vehicles (AVs). A comprehensive evaluation of recent AVs collision data indicates that modern automated driving systems are prone to rear-end collisions, usually leading to multiple-vehicle collisions. Moreover, most investigations into severe traffic conditions are confined to single-vehicle collisions. This work reviewed diverse techniques of existing literature to provide planning procedures for multiple vehicle cooperation and collision avoidance (MVCCA) strategies in AVs while also considering their performance and social impact viewpoints. Firstly, we investigate and tabulate the existing MVCCA techniques associated with single-vehicle collision avoidance perspectives. Then, current achievements are extensively evaluated, challenges and flows are identified, and remedies are intelligently formed to exploit a taxonomy. This paper also aims to give readers an AI-enabled conceptual framework and a decision-making model with a concrete structure of the training network settings to bridge the gaps between current investigations. These findings are intended to shed insight into the benefits of the greater efficiency of AVs set-up for academics and policymakers. Lastly, the open research issues discussed in this survey will pave the way for the actual implementation of driverless automated traffic systems.

Context‐aware target classification with hybrid Gaussian process prediction for cooperative vehicle safety systems

AbstractVehicle‐to‐Everything (V2X) communication has been proposed as a potential solution to improve the robustness and safety of autonomous vehicles by improving coordination and removing the barrier of non‐line‐of‐sight sensing. Cooperative Vehicle Safety (CVS) applications are tightly dependent on the reliability of the underneath data system, which can suffer from loss of information due to the inherent issues of their different components, such as sensors' failures or the poor performance of V2X technologies under dense communication channel load. Particularly, information loss affects the target classification module and, subsequently, the safety application performance. To enable reliable and robust CVS systems that mitigate the effect of information loss, a Context‐Aware Target Classification (CA‐TC) module coupled with a hybrid learning‐based predictive modeling technique for CVS systems is proposed. The CA‐TC consists of two modules: a Context‐Aware Map (CAM), and a Hybrid Gaussian Process (HGP) prediction system. Consequently, the vehicle safety applications use the information from the CA‐TC, making them more robust and reliable. The CAM leverages vehicles' path history, road geometry, tracking, and prediction; and the HGP is utilized to provide accurate vehicles' trajectory predictions to compensate for data loss (due to communication congestion) or sensor measurements' inaccuracies. Based on offline real‐world data, a finite bank of driver models that represent the joint dynamics of the vehicle and the drivers' behavior is learned. Offline training and online model updates are combined with on‐the‐fly forecasting to account for new possible driver behaviors. Finally, the framework is validated using simulation and realistic driving scenarios to confirm its potential in enhancing the robustness and reliability of CVS systems.

CenterLoc3D: monocular 3D vehicle localization network for roadside surveillance cameras

Monocular 3D vehicle localization is an important task for vehicle behaviour analysis, traffic flow parameter estimation and autonomous driving in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) and Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure System (CVIS), which is usually achieved by monocular 3D vehicle detection. However, monocular cameras cannot obtain depth information directly due to the inherent imaging mechanism, resulting in more challenging monocular 3D tasks. Currently, most of the monocular 3D vehicle detection methods still rely on 2D detectors and additional geometric constraint modules to recover 3D vehicle information, which reduces the efficiency. At the same time, most of the research is based on datasets of onboard scenes, instead of roadside perspective, which is limited in large-scale 3D perception. Therefore, we focus on 3D vehicle detection without 2D detectors in roadside scenes. We propose a 3D vehicle localization network CenterLoc3D for roadside monocular cameras, which directly predicts centroid and eight vertexes in image space, and the dimension of 3D bounding boxes without 2D detectors. To improve the precision of 3D vehicle localization, we propose a multi-scale weighted-fusion module and a loss with spatial constraints embedded in CenterLoc3D. Firstly, the transformation matrix between 2D image space and 3D world space is solved by camera calibration. Secondly, vehicle type, centroid, eight vertexes, and the dimension of 3D vehicle bounding boxes are obtained by CenterLoc3D. Finally, centroid in 3D world space can be obtained by camera calibration and CenterLoc3D for 3D vehicle localization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of 3D vehicle localization for roadside monocular cameras. Hence, we also propose a benchmark for this application including a dataset (SVLD-3D), an annotation tool (LabelImg-3D), and evaluation metrics. Through experimental validation, the proposed method achieves high accuracy with A{P_{3D}} of 51.30%, average 3D localization precision of 98%, average 3D dimension precision of 85% and real-time performance with FPS of 41.18.

Safe, Efficient, and Comfortable Autonomous Driving Based on Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure System.

Traffic crashes, heavy congestion, and discomfort often occur on rough pavements due to human drivers' imperfect decision-making for vehicle control. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will flood onto urban roads to replace human drivers and improve driving performance in the near future. With the development of the cooperative vehicle infrastructure system (CVIS), multi-source road and traffic information can be collected by onboard or roadside sensors and integrated into a cloud. The information is updated and used for decision-making in real-time. This study proposes an intelligent speed control approach for AVs in CVISs using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to improve safety, efficiency, and ride comfort. First, the irregular and fluctuating road profiles of rough pavements are represented by maximum comfortable speeds on segments via vertical comfort evaluation. A DRL-based speed control model is then designed to learn safe, efficient, and comfortable car-following behavior based on road and traffic information. Specifically, the model is trained and tested in a stochastic environment using data sampled from 1341 car-following events collected in California and 110 rough pavements detected in Shanghai. The experimental results show that the DRL-based speed control model can improve computational efficiency, driving efficiency, longitudinal comfort, and vertical comfort in cars by 93.47%, 26.99%, 58.33%, and 6.05%, respectively, compared to a model predictive control-based adaptive cruise control. The results indicate that the proposed intelligent speed control approach for AVs is effective on rough pavements and has excellent potential for practical application.

MASS: Mobility-Aware Sensor Scheduling of Cooperative Perception for Connected Automated Driving

Timely and reliable environment perception is fundamental to safe and efficient automated driving. However, the perception of standalone intelligence inevitably suffers from occlusions. A new paradigm, Cooperative Perception (CP), comes to the rescue by sharing sensor data from another perspective, i.e., from a cooperative vehicle (CoV). Due to the limited communication bandwidth, it is essential to schedule the most beneficial CoV, considering both the viewpoints and communication quality. Existing methods rely on the exchange of meta-information, such as visibility maps, to predict the perception gains from nearby vehicles, which induces extra communication and processing overhead. In this paper, we propose a new approach, learning while scheduling, for distributed scheduling of CP. The solution enables CoVs to predict the perception gains using past observations, leveraging the temporal continuity of perception gains. Specifically, we design a mobility-aware sensor scheduling (MASS) algorithm based on the restless multi-armed bandit (RMAB) theory to maximize the expected average perception gain. An upper bound on the expected average learning regret is proved, which matches the lower bound of any online algorithm up to a logarithmic factor. Extensive simulations are carried out on realistic traffic traces. The results show that the proposed MASS algorithm achieves the best average perception gain and improves recall by up to 3.1 percentage points compared to other learning-based algorithms. Finally, a case study on a trace of LiDAR frames qualitatively demonstrates the superiority of adaptive exploration, the key element of the MASS algorithm.

Singular optimal control for rendezvous problem for cooperative vehicle control

In this paper an unmanned aerial vehicle works cooperatively with a unmanned ground vehicle to aid in the automatic control of the ground vehicle. One challenge is when the aerial vehicle has to urgently rendezvous with the ground vehicle. An optimal control problem is formulated for such a case, the key contribution is the singular optimal control rendezvous problem formulation. Illustrative results are utilised to demonstrate this key formulation of singular optimal control solution as well as the optimal rendezvous trajectory analysis.

Contributions to the development of safe and accurate localisation solutions: The LOCSP project

GNSS are now in everybody's pocket, embedded in our smartphones and is widely used for informative uses (navigation, leisure…). In future transportation modes, and in particular autonomous vehicles or for safety related railways applications, localisation needs to be accurate and/or safe and trustful. In many of the environments crossed by users, satellite signal propagation is disturbed by buildings, trees or other obstacles that degrade performance. To contribute to the development of safe and accurate localisation solutions in these environments, the LOCSP project intends to evaluate and compare past algorithms on a new shared database but also focuses on the development of two research proposals: through cooperative vehicle localisation using artificial intelligence and with interference mitigation. This paper aims to introduce the project and the first results on these two axes.

Asynchronous Self-Triggered Stochastic Distributed MPC for Cooperative Vehicle Platooning over Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Asynchronous Self-Triggered Stochastic Distributed MPC for Cooperative Vehicle Platooning over Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

A Convex Optimal Control Framework for Autonomous Vehicle Intersection Crossing

Cooperative vehicle management emerges as a promising solution to improve road traffic safety and efficiency. This paper addresses the speed planning problem for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) at an unsignalized intersection with consideration of turning maneuvers. The problem is approached by a hierarchical centralized coordination scheme that successively optimizes the crossing order and velocity trajectories of a group of vehicles so as to minimize their total energy consumption and travel time required to pass the intersection. For an accurate estimate of the energy consumption of each CAV, the vehicle modeling framework in this paper captures 1) friction losses that affect longitudinal vehicle dynamics, and 2) the powertrain of each CAV in line with a battery-electric architecture. It is shown that the underlying optimization problem subject to safety constraints for powertrain operation, cornering and collision avoidance, after convexification and relaxation in some aspects can be formulated as two second-order cone programs, which ensures a rapid solution search and a unique global optimum. Simulation case studies are provided showing the tightness of the convex relaxation bounds, the overall effectiveness of the proposed approach, and its advantages over a benchmark solution invoking the widely used first-in-first-out policy. The investigation of Pareto optimal solutions for the two objectives (travel time and energy consumption) highlights the importance of optimizing their trade-off, as small compromises in travel time could produce significant energy savings.

Coordinating Multiple Cooperative Vehicle Trajectories on Shared Road Networks

This paper addresses the problem of planning trajectories for multiple cooperative agents along specified paths through a static road network. Vehicle trajectories are coupled through interactions at shared areas, including intersections and road segments. A motion model is presented that includes the combined trajectories of all vehicles. The trajectories are optimized for travel time by solving a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) that incorporates constraints to ensure collision avoidance. To improve the computation time of solving the MILP, two model modifications are introduced related to interactions: 1) The use of binary variables is reduced by grouping them at targeted travel times. 2) The relative travel order of interacting vehicles is constrained, guided by a heuristic solver. To further reduce computation time, an iterative method solves a sequence of smaller MILPs by targeting essential vehicle interactions with an algorithm that predicts interactions. Experiments are run on a simulated road network based on a real surface mine and haul truck trips. The proposed MILP methods are shown to significantly reduce solution costs compared to a reactive approach based on common driving practices. The MILP modifications significantly reduce computation time, trading off marginal solution quality. The reduction is extended by the iterative MILP scheme without degradation of solution quality.

IMMKF-DOA Auxiliary Vehicle Cooperative Localization Algorithm Based on Multi-base Station

IMMKF-DOA Auxiliary Vehicle Cooperative Localization Algorithm Based on Multi-base Station

Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Task Offloading for Parked Vehicle Cooperation in Vehicular Edge Computing

Vehicular edge computing (VEC) has greatly enhanced the quality of vehicle service with low latency and high reliability. However, in some areas not covered by roadside infrastructures or in cases when the infrastructures are damaged or fail, the offloaded tasks cannot have the chance to be performed. Even in the areas deployed with infrastructures, when a large number of offloaded tasks are generated, the edge servers may not be capable of processing them in time, owing to their computing resources constraint. Based on the above observations, we proposed the idea of parked vehicle cooperation in VEC, which uses roadside parked vehicles with underutilized computational resources to cooperate with each other to perform the compute-intensive tasks. Our approach aims to overcome the challenge brought by infrastructure lacking or failure and make up for the shortage of computing resources in VEC. In our approach, firstly, the roadside parked vehicles are managed as different parking clusters. Then, the optimal amount of resources required for each offloaded task is analyzed. Furthermore, a task offloading algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is proposed to minimize the total cost, which is composed of the task execution delay and the energy consumption overhead of the parked vehicles for executing the task. A large number of simulation results show that, compared with other algorithms, our approach not only has the highest task completion execution successful rate, but also has the lowest task execution cost.

Target tracking and enclosing via UAV/UGV cooperation using energy estimation pigeon-inspired optimization and switchable topology

PurposeThe research of unmanned air/ground vehicle (UAV/UGV) cooperation has attracted much attention due to its potential applications in disaster rescue and target surveillance. This paper aims to focus on the UAV/UGV cooperative target tracking and enclosing, considering the limits of detection and sensor failures.Design/methodology/approachThe UAV/UGV cooperation structure is designed, contributing to homogeneous consistency and heterogeneous communication. The target tracking of UAVs is converted into a constraint optimization problem involving tracking cost, and the target enclosing of UGVs is modeled as formation control.FindingsThe energy estimation pigeon-inspired optimization is developed to generate control inputs for UAVs. And the controller combined with switchable topology is proposed, where the switching rule is flexible in dealing with some emergencies.Practical implicationsThe proposed structure and algorithms can be easily applied to practice and help design the UAV/UGV control system.Originality/valueThe energy estimation mechanism is proposed for the target tracking of UAVs, and the rules of switching topologies ensure the target enclosing process of UGVs.