Trajectory Planning for Connected and Automated Vehicles at Isolated Signalized Intersections under Mixed Traffic Environment

TL;DR

This paper presents a decentralized bi-level optimization approach for trajectory planning of connected and automated vehicles at isolated signalized intersections in mixed traffic, aiming to reduce delays and fuel consumption.

Contribution

It introduces a novel bi-level optimization model considering both lateral and longitudinal vehicle movements in mixed traffic environments, solved with a Monte-Carlo Tree Search algorithm.

Findings

Reduces vehicle delay compared to benchmark cases.

Improves fuel economy through optimized trajectories.

Effectively manages lane-changing strategies in mixed traffic.

Abstract

Trajectory planning for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) has the potential to improve operational efficiency and vehicle fuel economy in traffic systems. Despite abundant studies in this research area, most of them only consider trajectory planning in the longitudinal dimension or assume the fully CAV environment. This study proposes an approach to the decentralized planning of CAV trajectories at an isolated signalized intersection under the mixed traffic environment, which consists of connected and human-driven vehicles (CHVs) and CAVs. A bi-level optimization model is formulated based on discrete time to optimize the trajectory of a single CAV in both the longitudinal and lateral dimensions given signal timings and the trajectory information of surrounding vehicles. The upper-level model optimizes lateral lane-changing strategies. The lower-level model optimizes longitudinal acceleration profiles based on the lane-changing strategies from the upper-level model. Minimization of vehicle delay, fuel consumption, and lane-changing costs are considered in the objective functions. A Lane-Changing Strategy Tree (LCST) and a Parallel Monte-Carlo Tree Search (PMCTS) algorithm are designed to solve the bi-level optimization model. CAV trajectories are planned one by one according to their distance to the stop bar. A rolling horizon scheme is applied for the dynamic implementation of the proposed model with time-varying traffic condition. Numerical studies validate the advantages of the proposed trajectory planning model compared with the benchmark cases without CAV trajectory planning.