An integrated two‐dimensional merging trajectory optimization model for automated vehicles considering mixed traffic flow

Abstract

Recently, automated vehicles have been recognized as a promising tool to address the problem of on‐ramp merging. However, the complexity of the problem includes ignorance of the vehicle's lateral dynamics, the limitation of the fixed merging point, the mismatch problem caused by the sequential optimization scheme, and the fixed terminal states assumption. These factors make it intractable in practical driving scenarios. This paper proposed an integrated optimization model for on‐ramp automated vehicles, which can guide the vehicle to complete the merging behaviour from the ramp lane to the main lane safely and efficiently. A merging path is first constructed in the two‐dimensional plane with two critical parameters recommended by a neural network predictor, enabling it to incorporate both longitudinal and lateral dynamics. Then, an integrated Mixed Integer Quadratic Program (MIQP) model is built to determine the optimal velocity profiles and merging gap simultaneously while considering the safety and efficiency factors. Specifically, with the introduction of discretization and linearization techniques, linear collision avoidance constraints and smooth transition constraints can be built, which can address the challenging computational problem. The effectiveness of the proposed model is validated through the microscopic and macroscopic numerical results under different levels of mixed traffic.