Optimal Control and Coordination of Connected and Automated Vehicles at Urban Traffic Intersections

TL;DR

This paper proposes a decentralized optimal control framework for coordinating connected and automated vehicles at urban intersections, aiming to minimize fuel consumption and travel time without traffic lights or congestion.

Contribution

It introduces a novel decentralized control method that optimizes vehicle acceleration for safe, efficient crossing of intersections without traffic signals.

Findings

Significant reduction in fuel consumption

Decreased travel time for vehicles

Effective collision avoidance

Abstract

We address the problem of coordinating online a continuous flow of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) crossing two adjacent intersections in an urban area. We present a decentralized optimal control framework whose solution yields for each vehicle the optimal acceleration/deceleration at any time in the sense of minimizing fuel consumption. The solu- tion, when it exists, allows the vehicles to cross the intersections without the use of traffic lights, without creating congestion on the connecting road, and under the hard safety constraint of collision avoidance. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is validated through simulation considering two intersections located in downtown Boston, and it is shown that coordination of CAVs can reduce significantly both fuel consumption and travel time.