Autonomous traffic at intersections: An optimization‐based analysis of possible time, energy, and CO savings

Abstract

In the field of autonomous driving, traffic‐light‐controlled intersections are of special interest. We analyze how much an optimized coordination of vehicles and infrastructure can contribute to efficient transit through these bottlenecks, depending on traffic density and certain regulations of traffic lights. To this end, we develop a mixed‐integer linear programming model to describe the interaction between traffic lights and discretized traffic flow. It is based on a microscopic traffic model with centrally controlled autonomous vehicles. We aim to determine a globally optimal traffic flow for given scenarios on a simple, but extensible, urban road network. The resulting models are very challenging to solve, in particular when involving additional realistic traffic‐light regulations such as minimum red and green times. While solving times exceed real‐time requirements, our model allows an estimation of the maximum performance gains due to improved communication and serves as a benchmark for heuristic and decentralized approaches.

Directions for future research on urban mobility and city logistics

“…Several scholars recently surveyed the scientific literature on vehicle autonomy in the transportation and logistics fields, see [26,58,70]. Most studies consider design and operational requirements for widespread, fully autonomous vehicle deployments, such as traffic flow management [69,89], intersection control [52,95], shared vehicle services [25,56], and autonomous logistics [38]. While such studies provide insights into the future potential benefits of vehicle autonomy, they remain (far) ahead of the actual state of the industry.…”

“…Particularly, advancements in information technology, vehicle autonomy and connectivity, vehicle electrification, payment methodologies, and clearing solutions have enabled creating new types of services and reshaping existing ones. Notable trending topics include: drones and autonomous ground vehicles [1,29,52,57,70,74,75], physical internet for parcel and cargo delivery [14,19,80], electric vehicles and micromobility [43,71], ride-sharing and ride hailing [44,68], crowd shipping and the gig economy [7,82,93], same-day delivery of goods and meals [32,86], collaborated transportation and brokering [30,40].…”

Preface: Special issue on the future of city logistics and urban mobility

“…Le et al [5] analyze the impact of optimized coordination between autonomous vehicles and traffic‐light controlled intersections. To this end, they develop a mixed‐integer linear programming (MILP) model based on a microscopic traffic model with centrally controlled autonomous vehicles and they incorporate traffic‐light switching regulations.…”