A Vehicle-Intersection Coordination Scheme for Smooth Flows of Traffic Without Using Traffic Lights

• Published in: IEEE transactions on intelligent transportation systems Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 1136 - 1147
• Main Authors: Kamal, Md Abdus Samad, Imura, Jun-ichi, Hayakawa, Tomohisa, Ohata, Akira, Aihara, Kazuyuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.06.2015
• Subjects: Acceleration; Automated vehicles; connected vehicles; Delays; intelligent transportation systems; intersection coordination; model predictive control (MPC); Roads; Trajectory; Turning; Vehicles; intelligent transportation systems; intersection coordination; Automated vehicles; connected vehicles; model predictive control (MPC)
• ISSN: 1524-9050; 1558-0016
• DOI: 10.1109/TITS.2014.2354380

This paper presents a coordination scheme of automated vehicles at an intersection without using any traffic lights. Using a two-way communication network, vehicles approaching the intersection from all sections are globally coordinated, by considering their states all together in a model predictive control framework, in order to achieve smooth traffic flows at the intersection. The optimal trajectories of the vehicles are computed based on avoidance of their cross-collision risks around the intersection under relevant constraints and preferences. The scheme efficiently utilizes the intersection area by preventing each pair of conflicting vehicles from approaching their cross-collision point at the same time, instead of reserving the whole intersection area for the conflicting vehicles one after another. The scheme also enables left- or right-turning movements of vehicles under constrained velocity without using any auxiliary lanes. The proposed vehicle-intersection coordination scheme is evaluated through numerical simulation in a typical test intersection consisting of both multilanes and single-lane approaches with turning movements of vehicles. Observations under different traffic flow conditions reveal that the proposed scheme significantly improves intersection performance compared with the traditional signalized intersection scheme.