Search Results (120)

Automated driving technologies have the capability to significantly increase road safety by decreasing accidents and increasing travel efficiency. This research presents a decision-making strategy for automated vehicles that models both lane changing and double lane changing maneuvers and is supported by a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithm. To capture realistic driving challenges, a highway driving scenario was designed using the professional multi-body simulation tool IPG Carmaker software, version 11 with realistic weather simulations to include aspects of rainy weather by incorporating vehicles with explicitly reduced tire–road friction while the ego vehicle is attempting to safely and perform efficient maneuvers in highway and merged merges. The hierarchical control system both creates an operational structure for planning and decision-making processes in highway maneuvers and articulates between higher-level driving decisions and lower-level autonomous motion control processes. As a result, a Duel Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (Duel-DDPG) agent was created as the DRL approach to achieving decision-making in adverse driving conditions, which was built in MATLAB version 2021, designed, and tested. The study thoroughly explains both the Duel-DDPG and standard Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithms, and we provide a direct performance comparative analysis. The discussion continues with simulation experiments of traffic complexity with uncertainty relating to weather conditions, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the Duel-DDPG algorithm. Full article

Autonomous lane-changing is one of the most critical and complex tasks in automated driving. Recent progress in reinforcement learning (RL) has shown strong potential to help autonomous vehicles (AVs) make safe and flexible lane-change decisions in real time under uncertain traffic conditions. In the current studies, there is a lack of a common structure that links RL algorithms, simulation tools, and performance evaluation methods. This paper presents a detailed examination of RL-based lane-changing systems in AVs, tracing their development from early rule-based models to modern learning-based approaches. It introduces a clear classification of lane-changing types—discretionary, mandatory, cooperative, and emergency—and connects each to the most suitable RL methods, including value-based, policy-based, actor–critic, model-based, and hybrid algorithms. Each method is examined for its performance, safety, and computational demands. Furthermore, it reviews major simulation environments, such as SUMO, CARLA, and SMARTS, and summarizes key evaluation measures related to safety, efficiency, comfort, and real-time performance. The comparison shows open research challenges, including model adaptation, safety assurance, and transfer from simulation to real-world driving. Finally, it outlines promising directions for future work, such as cooperative decision-making, safe and explainable RL, and lightweight models for real-time use. This review provides a clear foundation and practical guide for developing reliable and understandable RL-based lane-changing systems for future intelligent transportation. Full article

In the centralized scheduling mode of automated container terminals, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) often experience decision-making delays caused by system information-processing bottlenecks, which significantly affect path-planning efficiency and are particularly evident in sudden-traffic scenarios. To address this issue, this paper incorporates the artificial potential field (APF) into the cost function of Model Predictive Control (MPC) and develops a dual-trigger mechanism for lane-change and lane-return MPC obstacle-avoidance framework (Event-Triggered Model Predictive Control, EMPC). This framework integrates an obstacle-triggered local optimization mechanism and a lane-change trigger, enabling AGV to perform autonomous and dynamically responsive local obstacle avoidance, thereby improving local path-planning efficiency. Furthermore, a Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO)-based strategy is introduced to adaptively adjust the obstacle-weighting parameters within the EMPC cost function, enhancing both obstacle-avoidance and lane-keeping performance. Under multi-lane overtaking conditions, a lane-change trigger—implemented as a dual-phase “lane-change–return” mechanism—is employed, in which lateral optimization is activated only during critical phases, reducing online computational load by at least 28% compared with conventional MPC strategies. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed PPO–EMPC architecture exhibits high robustness, real-time performance, and scalability under dynamic and partially observable environments, providing a practical and generalizable decision-making paradigm for cooperative AGV operations in automated container terminals. Full article

To address the ‘mechanical’ return to original lane and similar non-humanized lane-changing issues that may occur in existing intelligent driving systems after completing overtaking maneuvers, this study proposes a humanized lane-changing decision method that incorporates driving style characteristics. First, based on the NGSIM dataset, we employ cluster analysis to systematically dissect human drivers’ lane-changing behavior patterns, laying the theoretical foundation for constructing a human-like decision framework. Second, a game model is established to precisely represent diverse driving styles by adjusting the weights of safety, efficiency, and comfort objectives. A reference line dynamic switching mechanism is then proposed to optimize lane-change paths by integrating vehicle speed and safety distance. Joint simulation results demonstrate superiority over dynamic programming (DP) methods in multiple aspects: under conservative driving mode, dual safety thresholds for following distance and speed significantly enhance safety and reliability. In general driving mode, driving stability and smoothness improved by 2.64% and 75.28%, respectively; in aggressive driving mode, lane-change speed increased by 7.06%. These improvements demonstrate that the human-like lane-changing strategy can autonomously achieve the optimal dynamic balance between safety, comfort, and efficiency tailored to different driving styles, providing an effective pathway for constructing high-performance autonomous driving decision systems. Full article

Autonomous driving, a transformative automotive technology, is currently a major research focus. Trajectory planning, one of the three core technologies for realizing autonomous driving, plays a decisive role in the performance of autonomous driving systems. The key challenge lies in planning an optimal trajectory based on real-time environmental information, yet significant research gaps remain, particularly for dynamic driving scenarios. To address this, our study investigates lane-changing trajectory planning in dynamic scenarios based on model predictive control (MPC) theory and proposes a novel dynamic lane-changing trajectory planning method. First, kinematic models for both the host vehicle and surrounding vehicles are established. Then, following the core components of MPC theory, we construct a prediction model, define an objective function, and formulate constraints for the rolling optimization step. Finally, the optimal control sequence derived from the optimization is processed using a least-squares fitting method to generate a lane-changing trajectory that demonstrates real-time adaptability in dynamic environments. The proposed method is validated through simulation studies of three typical driving conditions on a co-simulation platform. The results confirm that the planned trajectory exhibits excellent dynamic real-time adaptability, thereby contributing a foundation for achieving full-scenario autonomous driving. Full article

The traditional intermittent bus lane control struggles to achieve an effective balance between bus priority and lane utilization efficiency. To address this limitation, this study proposes a dynamic control strategy that enables the borrowing of intermittent bus lanes in mixed traffic flow environments and constructs a connected vehicle control model encompassing both the target intersection and its upstream segment. First, a dynamic clearance framework is established on the dedicated lane based on the real-time speed of buses. Concurrently, the target connected and automated vehicle (CAV) predicts the traffic signal status upon its arrival at the stop line to determine its traversable zone at the bus lanes. Subsequently, a coordinated control strategy is designed for the dynamic clearance framework and the traversable zone, leading to the development of lane-changing decision models under four distinct scenarios. This approach allows CAVs to dynamically utilize residual lane resources without compromising bus operations. Finally, using average vehicle delay as the evaluation metric, a comparative simulation analysis is conducted against the traditional bus lane utilization method across four dimensions: connected vehicle penetration rate, traffic flow saturation, right-turn proportion, and bus departure frequency. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed strategy significantly improves both bus priority and overall traffic efficiency. Full article

With the rapid growth of autonomous vehicle technologies, effective path-tracking control has become a critical component in ensuring safety and efficiency in complex traffic scenarios. When a high-level decision-making agent generates a collision-free path, a robust low-level controller is required to precisely follow this trajectory. However, connected autonomous vehicles (CAV) are inherently affected by communication delays and computation delays, which significantly degrade the performance of conventional controllers such as PID or other more advanced controllers like disturbance observers (DOB). While DOB-based designs have shown effectiveness in rejecting disturbances under nominal conditions, their performance deteriorates considerably in the presence of unknown time delays. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a delay-tolerant communication disturbance observer (CDOB) framework for path-tracking control in delayed systems. The proposed CDOB compensates for the adverse effects of time delays, maintaining accurate trajectory tracking even under uncertain and varying delay conditions. It is shown through a simulation study that the proposed control architecture maintains close alignment with the reference trajectory across various scenarios, including single-lane change, double-lane change, and Elastic Band-generated collision avoidance paths under various time delays. Simulation results further demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms conventional approaches in both tracking accuracy and delay robustness, making it well-suited for connected autonomous driving applications. Full article

In recent years, achieving safety, efficiency, and comfort among interactive automated driving has been a formidable challenge. Model-based approaches, such as game-theoretic and robust control methods, often result in overly cautious decisions or suboptimal solutions. In contrast, learning-based techniques typically demand high computational resources and lack interpretability. At the same time, simpler strategies that rely on static assumptions tend to underperform in rapidly evolving traffic environments. To address these limitations, we propose a novel game-based MPC-DDP framework that integrates game-theoretic predictions of human-driven vehicle (HDV) with a Dynamic Differential Programming (DDP) solver under a receding-horizon setting. Our method dynamically adjusts the autonomous vehicle’s (AV) control inputs in response to real-time human-driven vehicle (HDV) behavior. This enables an effective balance between safety and efficiency. Experimental evaluations on lane-change and intersection scenarios demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves smoother trajectories, higher average speeds when needed, and larger safety margins in high-risk conditions. Comparisons against state-of-the-art baselines confirm its suitability for complex, interactive driving environments. Full article

Lane-changing maneuvers critically influence traffic flow and safety. This study introduces the Global Optimal Lane-Changing (GOLC) model, a framework that optimizes decisions by quantitatively predicting their systemic effects on surrounding traffic. Unlike traditional models that focus on immediate neighbors, the GOLC model integrates a kinematic wave model to precisely quantify the spatiotemporal impacts on the entire affected platoon, striking a balance between local vehicle actions and global traffic efficiency. Implemented in the Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) environment, the GOLC model is evaluated against benchmark models Minimizing Overall Braking Induced by Lane Changes (MOBIL) and SUMO LC2013. Comparative evaluations demonstrate the GOLC model’s superior performance. In a three-lane scenario, the GOLC model significantly enhances traffic efficiency, reducing average delay by 3.4% to 46.8% compared to MOBIL under medium- to high-flow conditions. It also fosters a safer environment by reducing unnecessary lane changes by 1.1 times compared to the LC2013 model. In incident scenarios, the GOLC model shows greater adaptability, achieving higher average speeds and lower travel times while minimizing speed dispersion and deceleration. These findings validate the effectiveness of embedding macroscopic traffic theory into microscopic driving decisions. The model’s unique strength lies in its ability to predict and minimize the collective negative impact on all affected vehicles, representing a significant step towards real-world implementation in Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and enhancing safety in next-generation intelligent transportation systems. Full article

The optimal scheduling of vehicles at signal-free intersections under the connected and automated vehicle (CAV) environment has become a research hotspot in the intelligent transportation field. However, existing studies often oversimplify the intersection’s conflict area and fail to adequately address the spatiotemporal sparsity of conflict points, with little attention given to bus priority requirements. To address these gaps, this paper first establishes an intersection coordinate system and constructs a conflict area analysis model based on the coordinates of key conflict points and vehicle trajectories. Subsequently, an optimal scheduling model for automated vehicles at signal-free intersections with bus priority is developed, which considers the set of vehicles influencing decisions within a time window and uses vehicle entry times and lateral lane changes as decision variables. To enhance computational speed while preserving convergence accuracy, a search space reduction method based on available gaps for conflict point traversal constraints is designed. The model is then solved using an improved double-layer multi-population particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Simulation results, compared against traditional signal control, rule-driven signal-free, and dynamic-optimization-based signal-free algorithms demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a favorable balance between computational cost and efficiency. It significantly reduces the average vehicle delay. Moreover, incorporating bus priority reduces the average per capita delay by 18.95% compared to the non-priority scenario, effectively proving the validity of the proposed method. Full article

In an intelligent driving system, the rationality of driving decisions and the trajectory planning scheme directly determines the safety and stability of the system. Existing research mostly relies on high-definition maps and empirical parameters to estimate road adhesion conditions, ignoring the direct impact of real-time road status changes on the dynamic feasible domain of vehicles. This paper proposes an intelligent driving decision-making and trajectory planning method that comprehensively considers the influence factors of vehicle–road interaction. Firstly, real-time estimation of road adhesion coefficients was achieved based on the recursive least squares method, and a dynamic adhesion perception mechanism was constructed to guide the decision-making module to restrict lateral maneuvering behavior under low-adhesion conditions. A multi-objective lane evaluation function was designed for adaptive lane decision-making. Secondly, a longitudinal and lateral coupled trajectory planning framework was constructed based on the traditional lattice method to achieve smooth switching between lateral trajectory planning and longitudinal speed planning. The planned path is tracked based on a model predictive control algorithm and dual PID algorithm. Finally, the proposed method was verified on a co-simulation platform. The results show that this method has good safety, adaptability, and control stability in complex environments and dynamic adhesion conditions. Full article

With the development of intelligent connected vehicle and artificial intelligence technologies, mixed traffic scenarios where autonomous and human-driven vehicles coexist are becoming increasingly common. Autonomous vehicles need to accurately predict the lane change behavior of preceding vehicles to ensure safety. However, lane change behavior of human-driven vehicles is influenced by both environmental factors and driver preferences, which increases its uncertainty and makes prediction more difficult. To address this challenge, this paper focuses on the mining of driving preferences and the prediction of lane change behavior. We clarify the definition of driving preference and its relationship with driving style and construct a representation of driving operations based on vehicle dynamics parameters and statistical features. A preference feature extractor based on the SimCLR contrastive learning framework is designed to capture high-dimensional driving preference features through unsupervised learning, effectively distinguishing between aggressive, normal, and conservative driving styles. Furthermore, a dual-branch lane change prediction model is proposed, which fuses explicit temporal features of vehicle states with implicit driving preference features, enabling efficient integration of multi-source information. Experimental results on the HighD dataset show that the proposed model significantly outperforms traditional models such as Transformer and LSTM in lane change prediction accuracy, providing technical support for improving the safety and human-likeness of autonomous driving decision-making. Full article

Accurate forecasting of potential collision risk in dense traffic is addressed by a framework grounded in multi-vehicle trajectory prediction. A spatio-temporal fusion architecture, STGAT-EDGRU, is proposed. A Transformer encoder learns temporal motion patterns from each vehicle’s history; a boundary-aware graph (GAT) attention network models inter-vehicle interactions; and a Gated Multimodal Unit (GMU) adaptively fuses the temporal and spatial streams. Future positions are parameterized as bivariate Gaussians and decoded by a two-layer GRU. Using probabilistic trajectory forecasts for the main vehicle and its surrounding vehicles, collision probability and collision intensity are computed at each prediction instant and integrated via a weighted scheme into a Collision Risk Index (CRI) that characterizes risk over the entire horizon. On HighD, for 3–5 s horizons, average RMSE reductions of 0.02 m, 0.12 m, and 0.26 m over a GAT-Transformer baseline are achieved. In high-risk lane-change scenarios, CRI issues warnings 0.4–0.6 s earlier and maintains a stable response across the high-risk interval. These findings substantiate improved long-horizon accuracy together with earlier and more reliable risk perception, and indicate practical utility for lane-change assistance, where CRI can trigger early deceleration or abort decisions, and for risk-aware motion planning in intelligent driving. Full article

For the decision-making challenge of ensuring vehicle lane-changing safety, this study proposes a context-dependent causal inference-based model for safe lane changes. Emphasizing multi-vehicle interactions within dynamic traffic scenarios, we construct a three-layer decision-making framework that relies on real-time data collection of speed, acceleration, and spacing information from both the target vehicle and adjacent-lane vehicles. The framework consists of (1) a context-aware layer that extracts standardized dynamic features; (2) an attention mechanism layer that dynamically assigns weights to critical risk factors; and (3) a counterfactual causal reasoning layer where lane-changing risks are quantified through virtual interventions, with multi-objective safety strategies optimized via particle swarm algorithms. The simulation results indicate significant enhancements in high-density traffic conditions. When compared to traditional safety distance models and built-in models from simulation software (SUMO v1.18.0), the proposed model achieves reductions in average conflict counts by 63.0% (from 12.7 to 4.7 instances) and by 37.3% (from 7.5 to 4.7 instances), respectively. Additionally, lane-changing durations are reduced by 10.9% (from 5.5 to 4.9 s) and by 31.9% (from 7.2 to 4.9 s), while fluctuations in risk values decrease by 53.3% (from 0.75 to 0.35) and by 36.4% (from 0.55 to 0.35), respectively. The experimental validation confirms that the integration of dynamic safety distance computation with causal reasoning significantly enhances decision-making robustness in complex scenarios through coordinated risk quantification and multi-objective optimization Full article

Emerging transportation challenges necessitate cutting-edge technologies for real-time infrastructure and traffic monitoring. To create a dynamic digital twin for intersection monitoring, data gathering, performance assessment, and calibration of microsimulation software, this study presents a state-of-the-art platform that combines high-resolution LiDAR sensor data with VISSIM simulation software. Intending to track traffic flow and evaluate important factors, including congestion, delays, and lane configurations, the platform gathers and analyzes real-time data. The technology allows proactive actions to improve safety and reduce interruptions by utilizing the comprehensive information that LiDAR provides, such as vehicle trajectories, speed profiles, and lane changes. The digital twin technique offers unparalleled precision in traffic and infrastructure state monitoring by fusing real data streams with simulation-based performance analysis. The results show how the platform can transform real-time monitoring and open the door to data-driven decision-making, safer intersections, and more intelligent traffic data collection methods. Using the proposed platform, this study calibrated a VISSIM simulation network to optimize the driving behavior parameters in the software. This study addresses current issues in urban traffic management with real-time solutions, demonstrating the revolutionary impact of emerging technology in intelligent infrastructure monitoring. Full article