Multi-lane Unsignalized Intersection Cooperation with Flexible Lane Direction based on Multi-vehicle Formation Control

TL;DR

This paper introduces a flexible lane direction approach for connected and automated vehicles at unsignalized intersections, improving traffic efficiency by dynamically scheduling vehicles based on real-time distribution and formation control.

Contribution

It proposes a novel multi-lane cooperation method with flexible lane directions and vehicle formation reconfiguration, addressing limitations of fixed lane strategies.

Findings

Outperforms fixed-lane-direction methods in simulations.

Achieves collision-free vehicle scheduling.

Enhances traffic throughput at varying volumes.

Abstract

Unsignalized intersection cooperation of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) is able to eliminate green time loss of signalized intersections and improve traffic efficiency. Most of the existing research on unsignalized intersection cooperation considers fixed lane direction, where only specific turning behavior of vehicles is allowed on each lane. Given that traffic volume and the proportion of vehicles with different turning expectation may change with time, fixed lane direction may lead to inefficiency at intersections. This paper proposes a multi-lane unsignalized intersection cooperation method that considers flexible lane direction. The two-dimensional distribution of vehicles is calculated and vehicles that are not in conflict are scheduled to pass the intersection simultaneously. The formation reconfiguration method is utilized to achieve collision-free longitudinal and lateral position adjustment of vehicles. Simulations are conducted at different input traffic volumes and turning proportion of incoming vehicles, and the results indicate that our method outperformances the fixed-lane-direction unsignalized cooperation method and the signalized method.