RUBICONe: Wireless RAFT-Unified Behaviors for Intervehicular Cooperative Operations and Negotiations

TL;DR

RUBICONe introduces a distributed consensus framework extending RAFT with wireless connectivity, enabling autonomous vehicles to collaboratively make safer lane change decisions by reducing environmental interference and collective misjudgments.

Contribution

This paper presents a novel wireless RAFT-based consensus system for intervehicular cooperation, enhancing decision reliability in autonomous lane changes.

Findings

Consensus reduces environmental interference impact

Collaborative decisions improve safety and accuracy

Experimental validation with SDR devices demonstrates effectiveness

Abstract

Just as Caesar declared "alea iacta est" (the die is cast) upon crossing the Rubicone river, lane change decisions in autonomous vehicles also represent critical points of no return. RUBICONe addresses this challenge by recognizing that lane change decision-making relying solely on a single vehicle's perception would be as precarious as crossing an unknown river alone. By implementing a distributed consensus framework that extends the RAFT algorithm with wireless connectivity, RUBICONe enables multiple vehicles to collectively process and aggregate their perceptions. Using multiple software-defined radio (SDR) devices as the experimental platform, this study demonstrates how consensus-based decision-making significantly reduces the impact of environmental interference and mitigates the risk of misjudgments by individual vehicles. Just as crossing the Rubicone marked a point of irrevocable action backed by collective intelligence, RUBICONe ensures that lane change decisions are made with comprehensive situational awareness and distributed consensus, showcasing the reliability gain of consensus in wireless communications.