A Distributed Consensus Algorithm for Prioritizing Autonomous Vehicle Passing at Unsignalized Intersections under Mixed Traffic

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Raft-inspired distributed consensus algorithm for autonomous vehicles to determine crossing priorities at unsignalized intersections, enhancing traffic flow in mixed vehicle environments.

Contribution

It presents a novel voting-based consensus method tailored for autonomous vehicles at intersections, ensuring safety and efficiency under asynchronous communication.

Findings

Consensus achieved in 30-40 ms on average.

Algorithm functions effectively with mixed traffic and communication delays.

Secondary license plate-based system resolves timeouts in communication.

Abstract

We propose a methodology for connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) to determine their passing priority at unsignalized intersections where they coexist with human-driven vehicles (HVs). Assuming that CAVs can perceive the entry order of surrounding vehicles using computer vision technology and are capable of avoiding collisions, we introduce a voting-based distributed consensus algorithm inspired by Raft to resolve tie-breaking among simultaneously arriving CAVs. The algorithm is structured around the candidate and leader election processes and incorporates a minimal consensus quorum to ensure both safety and liveness among CAVs under typical asynchronous communication conditions. Assuming CAVs to be SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Level-4 or higher autonomous vehicles, we implemented the proposed distributed consensus algorithm using gRPC. By adjusting variables such as the CAV-to-HV ratio, intersection scale, and the processing time of computer vision modules, we demonstrated that stable consensus can be achieved even under mixed-traffic conditions involving HVs without adequate functionalities to interact with CAVs. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm reached consensus at a typical unsignalized four-way, two-lane intersection in approximately 30-40 ms on average. A secondary vision-based system is employed to complete the crossing priorities based on the recognized lexicographical order of the license plate numbers in case the consensus procedure times out on an unreliable vehicle-to-vehicle communication network. The significance of this study lies in its ability to improve traffic flow at unsignalized intersections by enabling rapid determination of passing priority through distributed consensus even under mixed traffic with faulty vehicles.