Nowadays, vehicles are the most important means of transportation in our daily lifes. During the last few decades, many studies have been carried out in the field of intelligent vehicles and significant results on the behavior of car-following and lane-change maneuvers have been achieved. However, the effects of lane-change on the car-following models have been relatively neglected. This effect is a temporary state in car-following behavior during which the follower vehicle considerably deviates from conventional car-following models for a limited time. This paper aims to investigate the behavior of the immediate follower during the lane-change of its leader vehicle. Based on a closer inspection of the microstructure behavior of real drivers, this temporary state is divided into two stages of anticipation and evaluation. Afterwards, a novel and adaptive neuro-fuzzy model that considers human driving factors is proposed to simulate the behavior of real drivers. Comparison between model results and real traffic data reveals that the proposed model can describe anticipation and evaluation behavior with smaller errors. The anticipation and evaluation model can modify current car-following models so as to accurately simulate the behavior of an immediate follower which leads to an enhancement of carfollowing applications such as driving assistance and collision avoidance systems.

Aiming at operating effectively future traffic systems, we propose here a novel methodology for integrated lanechanging and ramp metering control that exploits the presence of connected vehicles. In particular, we assume that a percentage of vehicles can receive and implement specific control tasks (e.g., lane-changing commands), while ramp metering is available via an infrastructure-based system or enabled by connected vehicles. The proposed approach is designed to robustly maximise the throughput at motorway bottlenecks employing a feedback controller, formulated as a Linear Quadratic Integral regulator, which is based on a simplified linear time invariant traffic flow model. We also present an extremum seeking algorithm to compute the optimal set-points used in the feedback controller, employing only the measurement of a cost that is representative of the achieved traffic conditions. The method is evaluated via simulation experiments, performed on a first-order, multi-lane, macroscopic traffic flow model, also featuring the capacity drop phenomenon, which allows to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed methodology and to highlight the improvement in terms of the generated congestion. Index Terms-Traffic control, connected and automated vehicles, lane-changing control, ramp metering.

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Considering the target of an operating effectively transportation system, we propose here a novel methodology for integrated lane-changing and ramp metering control that exploits the presence of connected and partly automated vehicles. In particular, we assume that a percentage of vehicles can receive and implement specific control tasks (e.g., lane-changing commands). A novel approach is designed to robustly maximise the throughput at motorway bottlenecks employing a Linear Quadratic Integral (LQI) regulator in combination with an antiwindup scheme, based on a simple Linear Time Invariant (LTI) model. The method is evaluated via simulation experiments, performed on a first-order, multi-lane, macroscopic traffic flow model, also featuring the capacity drop phenomenon, which allows to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed methodology and to highlight the improvement in terms of traffic efficiency.

Aiming at operating optimally minimizing error of tracking and designing control effort, this study presents a novel generalizable methodology of an optimal torque control for a 6-degree-of-freedom Stewart platform with rotary actuators. In the proposed approach, a linear quadratic integral regulator with the least sensitivity to controller parameter choices is designed, associated with an online artificial neural network gain tuning. The nonlinear system is implemented in ADAMS, and the controller is formulated in MATLAB to minimize the real-time tracking error robustly. To validate the controller performance, MATLAB and ADAMS are linked together and the performance of the controller on the simulated system is validated as real time. Practically, the Stewart robot is fabricated and the proposed controller is implemented. The method is assessed by simulation experiments, exhibiting the viability of the developed methodology and highlighting an improvement of 45% averagely, from the optimum and zero-error convergence points of view. Consequently, the experiment results allow demonstrating the robustness of the controller method, in the presence of the motor torque saturation, the uncertainties, and unknown disturbances such as intrinsic properties of the real test bed.

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