iTETRIS: An Integrated Wireless and Traffic Platform for Real-Time Road Traffic Management Solutions

Wireless vehicular cooperative systems have been identified as an attractive solution to improve road traffic management, thereby contributing to the European goal of safer, cleaner, and more efficient and sustainable traffic solutions. V2V-V2I communication technologies can improve traffic management through real-time exchange of data among vehicles and with road infrastructure. It is also of great importance to investigate the adequate combination of V2V and V2I technologies to ensure the continuous and costefficient operation of traffic management solutions based on wireless vehicular cooperative solutions. However, to adequately design and optimize these communication protocols and analyze the potential of wireless vehicular cooperative systems to improve road traffic management, adequate testbeds and field operational tests need to be conducted. Despite the potential of Field Operational Tests to get the first insights into the benefits and problems faced in the development of wireless vehicular cooperative systems, there is yet the need to evaluate in the long term and large dimension the true potential benefits of wireless vehicular cooperative systems to improve traffic efficiency. To this aim, iTETRIS is devoted to the development of advanced tools coupling traffic and wireless communication simulators

Real scenario and simulations on GLOSA traffic light system for reduced CO2 emissions, waiting time and travel time

Cooperative ITS is enabling vehicles to communicate with the infrastructure to provide improvements in traffic control. A promising approach consists in anticipating the road profile and the upcoming dynamic events like traffic lights. This topic has been addressed in the French public project Co-Drive through functions developed by Valeo named Green Light Optimal Speed Advisor (GLOSA). The system advises the optimal speed to pass the next traffic light without stopping. This paper presents results of its performance in different scenarios through simulations and real driving measurements. A scaling is done in an urban area, with different penetration rates in vehicle and infrastructure equipment for vehicular communication. Our simulation results indicate that GLOSA can reduce CO2 emissions, waiting time and travel time, both in experimental conditions and in real traffic conditions.Comment: in 22nd ITS World Congress, Oct 2015, Bordeaux, France. 201

The Impact of Driver Reaction in Cooperative Vehicle Safety Systems

Cooperative Vehicular Safety (CVS) has recently been widely studied in the field of automated vehicular systems. CVS systems help decrease the rates of accidents. However, implementing and testing CVS applications in real world is very costly and risky. Hence, most of the related research studies on CVS applications have relied mainly on simulations. In simulated CVS systems, it is important to consider all critical aspects of used models, and how these models affect one another. The movement model is a key component in the simulation study of CVS systems, which controls the mobility of vehicles (nodes) and responses to the continually changing acquiredinformation. However, existing mobility models are not created to take action(s) in response to hazardous situations (identified by situational awareness component). Integrating the reaction(s) to a hazardous alert is a missing element in current CVS system simulations. Hence to rectify this deficiency, this work is to incorporate a Driver’s Reaction Model (DReaM) that react and respond to hazard alerts, and studies the effect of main components of CVS system including the added model. We examined a simulation modeling framework that describes cooperative vehicle safety system as one unified model. The studied framework is powered by cooperation and communication between vehicles. Investigated elements are communication model, movement model, warning generation, and driver response to warning indicating an emergency of near to crash situation

Validation of driving behaviour as a step towards the investigation of Connected and Automated Vehicles by means of driving simulators

Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) are likely to become an integral part of the traffic stream within the next few years. Their presence is expected to greatly modify mobility behaviours, travel demands and habits, traffic flow characteristics, traffic safety and related external impacts. Tools and methodologies are needed to evaluate the effects of CAVs on traffic streams, as well as the impact on traffic externalities. This is particularly relevant under mixed traffic conditions, where human-driven vehicles and CAVs will interact. Understanding technological aspects (e.g. communication protocols, control algorithms, etc.) is crucial for analysing the impact of CAVs, but the modification induced in human driving behaviours by the presence of CAVs is also of paramount importance. For this reason, the definition of appropriate CAV investigations methods and tools represents a key (and open) issue. One of the most promising approaches for assessing the impact of CAVs is operator in the loop simulators, since having a real driver involved in the simulation represents an advantageous approach. However, the behaviour of the driver in the simulator must be validated and this paper discusses the results of some experiments concerning car-following behaviour. These experiments have included both driving simulators and an instrumented vehicle, and have observed the behaviours of a large sample of drivers, in similar conditions, in different experimental environments. Similarities and differences in driver behaviour will be presented and discussed with respect to the observation of one important quantity of car-following, the maintained spacing

An Investigation into the Performance Evaluation of Connected Vehicle Applications: From Real-World Experiment to Parallel Simulation Paradigm

A novel system was developed that provides drivers lane merge advisories, using vehicle trajectories obtained through Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC). It was successfully tested on a freeway using three vehicles, then targeted for further testing, via simulation. The failure of contemporary simulators to effectively model large, complex urban transportation networks then motivated further research into distributed and parallel traffic simulation. An architecture for a closed-loop, parallel simulator was devised, using a new algorithm that accounts for boundary nodes, traffic signals, intersections, road lengths, traffic density, and counts of lanes; it partitions a sample, Tennessee road network more efficiently than tools like METIS, which increase interprocess communications (IPC) overhead by partitioning more transportation corridors. The simulator uses logarithmic accumulation to synchronize parallel simulations, further reducing IPC. Analyses suggest this eliminates up to one-third of IPC overhead incurred by a linear accumulation model

The foot-controlled maneuvering unit: Summary report on Skylab experiment T-020

Skylab experiment T-020 was conducted to study the maneuvering capabilities of astronauts using a relatively simple experimental self-locomotive device, referred to as the foot-controlled maneuvering unit, and to evaluate the effectiveness of ground-based facilities simulating the operation of this device in weightless conditions of space. The final results as presented of this experiment which includes comparison of the tests performed during missions SL-3 and SL-4 of the Skylab with those performed on the simulators. Some of the results of this experiment and those of Skylab experiment M509, which employed an experimental hard-controlled maneuvering unit, are discussed in terms of the development of a possible future operational maneuvering system

A physiology-inspired framework for holistic city simulations

Life, services and activities within cities have commonly been studied by separate disciplines, each one independent from the others. One such approach is the computer simulation, which enables in-depth modelling and cost-effective evaluation of city phenomena. However, the adoption of integrated city simulations faces several barriers, such as managerial, social, and technical, despite its potential to support city planning and policymaking. This paper introduces the City Physiology: a new conceptual framework to facilitate the integration of city layers when designing holistic simulators. The physiology is introduced and applied through a process of three steps. Firstly, a literature review is offered in order to study the terminology and the progress already made towards integrated modelling of different urban systems. Secondly, interactions between urban systems are extracted from the approaches studied before. Finally, the pipeline to carry out the integration strategy is described. In addition to providing a conceptual tool for holistic simulations, the framework enables the discovery of new research lines generated by previously unseen connections between city layers. Being an open framework, available to all researchers to use and broaden, the authors of this paper envisage that it will be a valuable resource in establishing an exact science of cities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A physiology-inspired framework for holistic city simulations

Life, services and activities within cities have commonly been studied by separate disciplines, each one independent from the others. One such approach is the computer simulation, which enables in-depth modelling and cost-effective evaluation of city phenomena. However, the adoption of integrated city simulations faces several barriers, such as managerial, social, and technical, despite its potential to support city planning and policymaking. This paper introduces the City Physiology: a new conceptual framework to facilitate the integration of city layers when designing holistic simulators. The physiology is introduced and applied through a process of three steps. Firstly, a literature review is offered in order to study the terminology and the progress already made towards integrated modelling of different urban systems. Secondly, interactions between urban systems are extracted from the approaches studied before. Finally, the pipeline to carry out the integration strategy is described. In addition to providing a conceptual tool for holistic simulations, the framework enables the discovery of new research lines generated by previously unseen connections between city layers. Being an open framework, available to all researchers to use and broaden, the authors of this paper envisage that it will be a valuable resource in establishing an exact science of cities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

European White Book on Real-Time Power Hardware in the Loop Testing : DERlab Report No. R- 005.0

The European White Book on Real-Time-Powerhardware-in-the-Loop testing is intended to serve as a reference document on the future of testing of electrical power equipment, with specifi c focus on the emerging hardware-in-the-loop activities and application thereof within testing facilities and procedures. It will provide an outlook of how this powerful tool can be utilised to support the development, testing and validation of specifi cally DER equipment. It aims to report on international experience gained thus far and provides case studies on developments and specifi c technical issues, such as the hardware/software interface. This white book compliments the already existing series of DERlab European white books, covering topics such as grid-inverters and grid-connected storag

Integrating tools for an effective testing of connected and automated vehicles technologies

The development of connected and automated driving functions involves that the interaction of autonomous/ automated vehicles with the surrounding environment will increase. Accordingly, there is a necessity for an improvement in the usage of traditional tools of the automotive development process. This is a critical problem since the classic development process used in the automotive field uses a very simplified driver model and the traffic environment, while nowadays it should contemplate a realistic representation of these elements. To overcome this issue, the authors proposed an integrated simulation environment, based on the co-simulation of Matlab/Simulink environment with simulation of urban mobility, which allows for a realistic model of vehicle dynamic, control logics, driver behaviour and traffic conditions. Simulation tests have been performed to prove the reasoning for such a tool, and to show the capabilities of the instrument. By using the proposed platform, vehicles may be modelled with a higher level of details (with respect to microscopic simulators), while the autonomous/automated driving functions can be tested in realistic traffic scenarios where the features of the road traffic environment can be varied to verify in a realistic way the level of robustness of the on-board implemented functions