Ricerc@Sapienza

We develop traffic management and data networking mechanisms and study their integrated design for an autonomous transportation system. The traffic management model involves a multi-lane multi-segment highway. Ramp managers regulate admission of vehicles into the highway and their routing to designated lanes. Vehicles moving across each lane are organized into platoons. A Platoon Leader (PL) is elected in each platoon and is used to manage its members and their communications with the infrastructure and with vehicles in other platoons.

The paper introduces a model-based optimization procedure for the design of a control system with signal synchronization, real-time bus priority and green light speed advisory to car drivers. The traffic model simulates car traffic as platoons and bus movements individually. An optimization routine simulates the effect of different bus priority rules, which can be actuated online through bus identification devices and applies a metaheuristic algorithm to optimize signal settings.