Dissipation of stop-and-go waves via control of autonomous vehicles: Field experiments

Abstract

Traffic waves are phenomena that emerge when the vehicular density exceeds a critical threshold. Considering the presence of increasingly automated vehicles in the traffic stream, a number of research activities have focused on the influence of automated vehicles on the bulk traffic flow. In the present article, we demonstrate experimentally that intelligent control of an autonomous vehicle is able to dampen stop-and-go waves that can arise even in the absence of geometric or lane changing triggers. Precisely, our experiments on a circular track with more than 20 vehicles show that traffic waves emerge consistently, and that they can be dampened by controlling the velocity of a single vehicle in the flow. We compare metrics for velocity, braking events, and fuel economy across experiments. These experimental findings suggest a paradigm shift in traffic management: flow control will be possible via a few mobile actuators (less than 5%) long before a majority of vehicles have autonomous capabilities.

Model-Based String Stability of Adaptive Cruise Control Systems Using Field Data

“…More recently there has been interest in how a small number of autonomous vehicles (AVs) are able to achieve string stability of a platoon even if not all vehicles in the flow are autonomous or have connectivity (e.g., mixed human and autonomous flows). This too has been considered both in theory [30]- [33] and experimentally [9], [34], [35]. In the experiments conducted by Stern, et al [9], a single autonomous vehicle in a stream of 20 human-piloted vehicles was able to stabilize the traffic flow and dampen stop-and-go waves.…”

“…This too has been considered both in theory [30]- [33] and experimentally [9], [34], [35]. In the experiments conducted by Stern, et al [9], a single autonomous vehicle in a stream of 20 human-piloted vehicles was able to stabilize the traffic flow and dampen stop-and-go waves. Recently, Jin, et al [35] demonstrate experimentally that substantial improvements in fuel efficiency and safety may be achieved when only some vehicles use connected adaptive cruise control (ACC).…”

A multiscale model for traffic regulation via autonomous vehicles

“…The effect of AVs in terms of influencing bulk traffic has been studied in-silico [7,14,18,30,34], artificial environment [17] and also in experiments [29]. In particular, the results of [29] showed a potential decrease of up to 40% in fuel consumption by dampening of traffic waves. Despite such achievements, a complete macroscopic theory for control of bulk traffic via AVs is still missing.…”

Theoretical conditions for restricting secondary jams in jam-absorption driving scenarios

“…The first type recommends or orders all vehicles within specific road sections to change their maneuvers [21,22,24]. The second type manipulates only a single or a certain percentage of vehicles [23,[25][26][27]. The maneuvers of the other vehicles are indirectly controlled by the manipulated vehicles.…”