scholarly journals Change in Microscopic Traffic Simulation Practice with Respect to the Emerging Automated Driving Technology

Author(s):  
Xuan Fang ◽  
Tamás Tettamanti

It is believed that autonomous vehicles will replace conventional human drive vehicles in the next decades due to the emerging autonomous driving technology, which will definitely bring a massive transformation in the road transport sector. Due to the high complexity of traffic systems, efficient traffic simulation models for the assessment of this disruptive change are critical. The objective of this paper is to justify that the common practice of microscopic traffic simulation needs thorough revision and modification when it is applied with the presence of autonomous vehicles in order to get realistic results. Two high-fidelity traffic simulators (SUMO and VISSIM) were applied to show the sensitivity of microscopic simulation to automated vehicle’s behavior. Two traffic evaluation indicators (average travel time and average speed) were selected to quantitatively evaluate the macro-traffic performance of changes in driving behavior parameters (gap acceptance) caused by emerging autonomous driving technologies under different traffic demand conditions.

Author(s):  
Zong Z. Tian ◽  
Thomas Urbanik ◽  
Roelof Engelbrecht ◽  
Kevin Balke

One of the issues involved in using microscopic simulation models is the variation in the simulation results. This study examined some of the more popular microscopic traffic simulation models, CORSIM, SimTraffic, and VISSIM, and investigated the variations in the performance measures generated by these models. The study focused on the capacity and delay estimates at a signalized intersection. The effects of link length, speed, and vehicle headway generation distribution were also investigated. With regard to variations in performance measures, the study found that CORSIM yields the lowest variations, whereas SimTraffic yields the highest. The highest variation in each simulation model normally occurs when the traffic demand approaches capacity. It was also found that delays are affected by the link length and speed in simulation models. Such an impact on delays is closely related to the range of speed variations. In general, shorter links and higher link speeds result in lower delays. There is no strong evidence that the headway distribution used to generate vehicles in the simulated network has any effect on capacity and delay estimates. Multiple simulation runs are necessary to achieve an accurate estimate on the true system performance measures. With a 10% error range in estimated delay, two to five runs may be enough for under-capacity conditions, but more than 40 multiple runs may be necessary to accurately estimate delay at, near, or over capacity.


1998 ◽  
Vol 1644 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunlong Zhang ◽  
Larry E. Owen ◽  
James E. Clark

The purpose of this paper is to explore various traffic modeling aspects and theories that may overcome some of the limitations in existing microscopic simulation models. A multiregime microscopic traffic simulation approach has been formulated featuring realistic and comprehensive carfollowing and lane-changing logic. A prototype implementation of the multiregime approach was developed in C++ and extensively tested. The multiregime simulation results demonstrate the efficiency and validity of the proposed models for a broad range of traffic scenarios. The test and validation results indicate that the model and program outperformed traditional methods and other existing traffic simulation programs. The validity and efficiency of the model is attributed to the fact that the regimes were added to the model incrementally to reflect increasing agreement with real-world traffic flow. The techniques and corresponding models will be used to improve existing microscopic traffic simulation models and programs.


1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 840-851 ◽  
Author(s):  
A F Al-Kaisy ◽  
J A Stewart ◽  
M Van Aerde

Microscopic traffic simulation models are being increasingly used to evaluate Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) strategies and to complement empirical data in developing new analytical procedures and methodologies. Lane changing rules are an essential element of any microscopic traffic simulation model. While most of these rules are based on theories and hypotheses, to date no attempt has been made to investigate the consistency of lane changing behaviour from microscopic simulation with empirical observations. The research presented in this paper examined this consistency at freeway weaving areas using empirical data. These data were collected in the late 1980s at several major freeway weaving sections in the State of California. The microscopic traffic simulation model INTEGRATION was used to perform simulation experiments in this research. Vehicle distributions, both total and by type of movement, were used as measures to investigate the lane changing activity that took place at these freeway areas. This examination revealed significant agreement between patterns of lane changing behaviour as observed in the field and as reproduced by microscopic simulation. Most quantitative discrepancies were shown to be a function of user-specified input data or due to some inherent limitations in the empirical data.Key words: simulation, lane changing, weaving, freeways.


Author(s):  
Wilco Burghout ◽  
Haris N. Koutsopoulos ◽  
Ingmar Andréasson

Traffic simulation is an important tool for modeling the operations of dynamic traffic systems. Although microscopic simulation models provide a detailed representation of the traffic process, macroscopic and mesoscopic models capture the traffic dynamics of large networks in less detail but without the problems of application and calibration of microscopic models. This paper presents a hybrid mesoscopic–microscopic model that applies microscopic simulation to areas of specific interest while simulating a large surrounding network in less detail with a mesoscopic model. The requirements that are important for a hybrid model to be consistent across the models at different levels of detail are identified. These requirements vary from the network and route choice consistency to the consistency of the traffic dynamics at the boundaries of the microscopic and mesoscopic submodels. An integration framework that satisfies these requirements is proposed. A prototype hybrid model is used to demonstrate the application of the integration framework and the solution of the various integration issues. The hybrid model integrates MITSIMLab, a microscopic traffic simulation model, and Mezzo, a newly developed mesoscopic model. The hybrid model is applied in two case studies. The results are promising and support both the proposed architecture and the importance of integrating microscopic and mesoscopic models.


Author(s):  
Byungkyu (Brian) Park ◽  
Hongtu (Maggie) Qi

Microscopic traffic simulation models have been playing an important role in the evaluation of transportation engineering and planning practices for the past few decades, particularly in cases in which field implementation is difficult or expensive to conduct. To achieve high fidelity and credibility for a traffic simulation model, model calibration and validation are of utmost importance. Most calibration efforts reported in the literature have focused on the informal practice, and they have seldom proposed a systematic procedure or guideline for the calibration and validation of simulation models. This paper proposes a procedure for microscopic simulation model calibration. The validity of the proposed procedure was demonstrated by use of a case study of an actuated signalized intersection by using a widely used microscopic traffic simulation model, Verkehr in Staedten Simulation (VISSIM). The simulation results were compared with multiple days of field data to determine the performance of the calibrated model. It was found that the calibrated parameters obtained by the proposed procedure generated performance measures that were representative of the field conditions, while the simulation results obtained with the default and best-guess parameters were significantly different from the field data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingan (David) Kan ◽  
Lin Xiao ◽  
Hao Liu ◽  
Meng Wang ◽  
Wouter J. Schakel ◽  
...  

Realistic microscopic traffic simulation is essential for prospective evaluation of the potential impacts of new traffic control strategies. Freeway corridors with interacting bottlenecks and dedicated lanes generate complex traffic flow phenomena and congestion patterns, which are difficult to reproduce with existing microscopic simulation models. This paper discusses two alternative driving behavior models that are capable of modeling freeways with multiple bottlenecks and dedicated lanes over an extended period with varying demand levels. The models have been calibrated using archived data from a complicated 13-mile long section of the northbound SR99 freeway near Sacramento, California, for an 8-hour time period in which the traffic fluctuated from free-flow to congested conditions. The corridor includes multiple bottlenecks, multiple entry and exit ramps, and an HOV lane. Calibration results show extremely good agreement between field data and model predictions. The models have been cross-validated and produced similar macroscopic traffic performance. The main behavior that should be captured for successful modeling of such a complex corridor includes the anticipative and cooperative driver behavior near merges, lane preference in presence of dedicated lanes, and variations in desired headway along the corridor.


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Bucsky

Abstract The freight transport sector is a low profit and high competition business and therefore has less ability to invest in research and development in the field of autonomous vehicles (AV) than the private car industry. There are already different levels of automation technologies in the transport industry, but most of these are serving niche demands and answers have yet to be found about whether it would be worthwhile to industrialise these technologies. New innovations from different fields are constantly changing the freight traffic industry but these are less disruptive than on other markets. The aim of this article is to show the current state of development of freight traffic with regards to AVs and analyse which future directions of development might be viable. The level of automation is very different in the case of different transport modes and most probably the technology will favour road transport over other, less environmentally harmful traffic modes.


Author(s):  
Roman I. Dremliuga ◽  
Andrey A. Yakovenko

Развитие технологий автономного автотранспорта является одним из приоритетов в технологическом развитии Российской Федерации. Несмотря на прогресс в данной сфере, вряд ли можно говорить о значимых успехах России во внедрении использования автономного транспорта на дорогах общего пользования. В основе данного исследования лежит утверждение, что правовой режим является либо катализатором, либо замедляющим фактором развития сферы автономного автотранспорта. Цель исследования – провести анализ правовых норм в сфере тестирования и эксплуатации автономного автотранспорта в Европе. Авторы полагают, что исследуемые европейские страны имеют достаточно проработанную нормативную базу в данной сфере, поэтому их опыт может быть полезен в разработке и модификации российской правовой базы для регулирования отношений в сфере использования автономного автотранспорта. Задачи исследования: а) определить нормативную базу, связанную с регулированием отношений по тестированию и эксплуатации автономных транспортных средств; б) выявить позицию лидирующих европейских стран, связанную с вопросами необходимости регулирования таких отношений; в) оценить перспективы возможности заимствования положительной практики регулирования рассматриваемой сферы общественных отношений в правовую действительность Российской Федерации. Методологической основой исследования послужили диалектический метод познания, общенаучные методы абстрагирования, анализа и синтеза, а также специальные юридические методы (сравнительно-правовой, логико-юридический и др.). В статье делается вывод, что в процессе создания нормативно правовой базы власти стремятся детально урегулировать исследуемую область общественных отношений. Рассмотренные страны имеют практически схожую модель регулирования, с жёсткими нормативными рамками. Авторы полагают, что некоторые ограничения являются неблагоприятными для развития сектора цифровой экономики. Тем не менее, опыт европейских стран может быть использован в России в первую очередь для определения проблемных точек регулирования и организации контроля за тестированием и использованием автономного автотранспорта. Ключевые слова: Европейский Союз, регулирование тестирования автономного автотранспорта, беспилотный автотранспорт, цифровая экономика, искусственный интеллект, кибербезопасность, распознавание образов, киберправо, беспилотные транспортные средства, цифровая трансформации, умные вещи, умный город, сравнительное правоведение, сравнительный анализ, новый технологический уклад, право Нидерландов, право Германии, право Великобритании, право информационных технологий, право ИТ. The development of unmanned (autonomous) vehicle technologies is one of the strategic priorities of the Russian Federation. Despite a great deal of attention to this area, one can hardly speak of any significant success of Russia in introducing the use of autonomous vehicles on public roads. This study is based on the assumption that the legal regime is a catalyst or a deterrent to the development of autonomous motor transport or a deterrent to the development of the autonomous motor transport sector. The aim of the study is to analyze the legal norms in the field of testing and operation of autonomous road transport in Europe. The authors believe that the studied European countries have a sufficiently developed regulatory system in this area; therefore, their experience can be useful in developing and modifying the Russian legal framework to regulate the use of autonomous road transport. The objectives of the study are as follows: a) to define the regulatory framework related to the regulation of relations in the testing and operation of autonomous vehicles; b) to identify the position of the leading European countries related to the issues of the need for regulation and its limits; c) to assess the prospects for the possibility of taking the positive practice of regulation of the considered sphere of social relations into the legal reality of the Russian Federation. The dialectical method of cognition, general scientific methods of abstraction, analysis and synthesis, as well as special legal methods (comparative legal, logical-legal, etc.) served as the methodological basis for the research. The article concludes that in the process of creating a legal system the authorities seek to regulate in detail the area of public relations under study. The countries under study have almost similar model of regulation with rigid normative frameworks. The authors believe that some restrictions are unfavorable for the development of digital economy sectors. Nevertheless, the experience of European countries can be used in Russia first of all to identify problem points of regulation and organization of control over testing and use of autonomous motor vehicles.


Author(s):  
Yalda Rahmati ◽  
Mohammadreza Khajeh Hosseini ◽  
Alireza Talebpour ◽  
Benjamin Swain ◽  
Christopher Nelson

Despite numerous studies on general human–robot interactions, in the context of transportation, automated vehicle (AV)–human driver interaction is not a well-studied subject. These vehicles have fundamentally different decision-making logic compared with human drivers and the driving interactions between AVs and humans can potentially change traffic flow dynamics. Accordingly, through an experimental study, this paper investigates whether there is a difference between human–human and human–AV interactions on the road. This study focuses on car-following behavior and conducted several car-following experiments utilizing Texas A&M University’s automated Chevy Bolt. Utilizing NGSIM US-101 dataset, two scenarios for a platoon of three vehicles were considered. For both scenarios, the leader of the platoon follows a series of speed profiles extracted from the NGSIM dataset. The second vehicle in the platoon can be either another human-driven vehicle (scenario A) or an AV (scenario B). Data is collected from the third vehicle in the platoon to characterize the changes in driving behavior when following an AV. A data-driven and a model-based approach were used to identify possible changes in driving behavior from scenario A to scenario B. The findings suggested there is a statistically significant difference between human drivers’ behavior in these two scenarios and human drivers felt more comfortable following the AV. Simulation results also revealed the importance of capturing these changes in human behavior in microscopic simulation models of mixed driving environments.


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