Applied Mathematics Colloquium: Dr. Andreas Malikopoulos
University of Delaware
Friday, October 13, 2017 · 2 - 3 PM
Title: Optimal Control for Vehicle Coordination Using Connectivity and Automation
Speaker:
Andreas
A. Malikopoulos, University
of Delaware
Abstract: In this “new world” of massive
amounts of data from vehicles and infrastructure, what we used to model as
uncertainty (noise or disturbance) for traffic becomes extra state information
in a much higher-dimensional vector. Connected and automated vehicles provide
the most intriguing opportunity for enabling users to better monitor
transportation network conditions and make better operating decisions to
improve safety and reduce pollution, energy consumption, and travel delays.
While progress has been made, especially in the area of safety and how
accidents could potentially be prevented, one particular question that still
remains unanswered is “how much can we improve fuel consumption, if we assume
that the vehicles are connected and can exchange information with each other
and with infrastructure?” This talk will address the problem of coordinating
vehicles that are wirelessly connected to each other at different
transportation segments, e.g., intersections, merging roadways, to achieve a
smooth traffic flow without stop-and-go driving. I will present a decentralized
optimal control framework whose closed-form solution exists under certain
conditions, and which, based on Hamiltonian analysis, yields for each vehicle
the optimal acceleration/deceleration at any time in the sense of minimizing
fuel consumption. The solution, when it exists, allows the vehicles to cross
the intersections and merging roadways without the use of traffic lights,
without creating congestion, and under the hard safety constraint of collision
avoidance.