Connected Vehicle System Design for Signalized Arterials

It can be expected that connected vehicles (CVs) systems will soon go beyond testbed and appear in real-world applications. To accommodate a large number of connected vehicles on the roads, traffic signal control systems on signalized arterials would require supports of various components such as roadside infrastructure, vehicle on-board devices, an effective communication network, and optimal control algorithms. In this project, we aim to establish a real-time and adaptive system for supporting the operations of CV-based traffic signal control functions. The proposed system will prioritize the communication needs of different types of CVs and best utilize the capacity of the communication channels. The CV data sensing and acquisition protocol, built on a newly developed concept of Age of Information (AoI), will support the feedback control loop to adjust signal timing plans. Our multidisciplinary research team, including researchers from transportation engineering and electrical engineering, will carry out the project tasks along four directions that capitalized on the PIs’ expertise: (i) Data collection and communication, in which the proposed system will be based on the AoI, prioritize the data needs of different types of CVs, and optimize the communication network; (ii) Dynamic traffic signal coordination, which will concurrently facilitate the progression of traffic flows along multiple critical paths;  (iii) Smart traffic signal control, where both operational efficiency and safety improvement are accounted for at signalized intersections; and (iv) Multimodal system design, which will integrate transit signal priority (TSP) and suppression controls for accommodating connected buses. This project addresses the urgent needs in CV system designs and offers control foundations to support the operations of urban signalized arterial in a CV environment. The full report is available from the University of Utah's National Institute for Transportation and Communities after free registration at https://ppms.trec.pdx.edu/media/project_files/NITC-RR-1235_Connected_Vehicle_System_Design_for_Signalized_Arterials.pdf