With the advent of autonomous driving, concepts like road trains or platoons are becoming more popular. In these arrangements, vehicles travel at separations of only 5 to 10m between them. These short inter-vehicle distances allow compacting vehicle flows resulting in increased throughput on highways. In addition, there are also fuel/energy savings as the magnitude of aerodynamic resistance acting on vehicles is reduced. These benefits increase when reducing inter-vehicle separations to below 5m. However, it becomes extremely difficult to guarantee safety, especially, when braking in an emergency. The longitudinal and lateral control systems developed so far aim to achieve string stability in the cruise scenario, i.e., to prevent that small variations at the lead magnify towards the trail. Unfortunately, this has no relevance during emergency braking, since control systems incur saturation, i.e., the condition where computed output brake forces exceed those that can be applied by actuators. This is because all vehicles have to apply their maximum brake forces in order to minimize the stopping distance of the platoon and reach a complete standstill. As a result, emergency braking requires special attention and needs to be designed and verified independent of the cruise scenario. Braking in an emergency is mainly characterized by the problem of heterogeneous deceleration capabilities of vehicles, e.g., due to their type and/or loading conditions. As a result, a deceleration rate possible by one vehicle may not be achievable by its immediately leading or following vehicles. Not addressing this heterogeneity leads to inter-vehicle collisions. Moreover, transitions in the road profile increase the complexity of such brake maneuvers. Particularly, when there is a transition from a flat road to a steep downhill, an already saturated brake controller cannot counteract the effect of the downhill slope. Hence, its deceleration magnitude will be reduced, potentially leading to intra-platoon crashes that would otherwise not occur on a flat road. In this work, we first analyze the problem of emergency braking in platoons operating at inter-vehicle separations below 5m and under idealized conditions (i.e., flat road, instantaneous deceleration, etc.). For this case, we propose a cyber-physical approach based on exploiting space buffers that are present in the separations between vehicles, and compare it with straightforward schemes (such as Least Platoon Length and Least Stopping Distance) in terms of achieved aerodynamic benefits, overall platoon length, and stopping distance. We then consider realistic conditions (in particular, changing road profiles as mentioned before) and investigate how to design a brake-by-wire controller present at each vehicle that accounts for this. We further extend our proposed cyber-physical approach by adding cooperative behavior. In particular, if an individual vehicle is unable to track its assigned deceleration, it coordinates with all others to avoid inter-vehicle collisions, for which we propose a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication strategy. Finally, we present a detailed evaluation of the proposed cyber-physical approach based on high-fidelity vehicle models in Matlab/Simulink. Even though more work is needed towards a real-life implementation, our simulation results demonstrate benefits by the proposed approach and, especially, its feasibility.

Comprehensive information on traffic flow is essential for vehicular emission monitoring and traffic control. However, such information is not observable everywhere and anytime on the road because of high installation costs and malfunctions of stationary sensors. In order to compensate for stationary sensors’ weakness, this thesis analyses an approach for inferring traffic flows from mobile data provided by INRIX, a commercial crowd-sourced traffic dataset with wide spatial coverage and high quality. The idea is to develop Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based models to automatically extract relations between traffic flow and INRIX measurements, e.g., speed and travel time, from historical data considering temporal and spatial dependencies. We conducted experiments using four weeks of data from INRIX and stationary sensors on two adjacent road segments on the E4 highway in Stockholm. Models are validated via traffic flow estimation based on one week of INRIX data. Compared with the traditional approach that fits the stationary flow-speed relationship based on the multi-regime model, the new approach greatly improves the estimation accuracy. Moreover, the results indicate that the new approach’s models have better resistance to the drift of input variables and can decrease the deterioration of estimation accuracy on the road segment without a stationary sensor. Hence, the new approach may be more appropriate for estimating traffic flows on the nearby road segments of a stationary sensor. The approach provides a highly automated means to build models adaptive to datasets and improves estimation and imputation accuracy. It can also easily integrate new data sources to improve the models. Therefore, it is very suitable to be applied to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for traffic monitor and control in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data. / Information om trafikflödet är nödvändig för övervakning av fordonsutsläpp och trafikstyrning. Trafikflöden kan dock inte observeras överallt och när som helst på vägen på grund av höga installationskostnader och t.ex. funktionsstörningar hos stationära sensorer. För att kompensera för stationära sensorers svagheter analyseras i detta arbete ett tillvägagångssätt för att estimera trafikflöden från mobila data som tillhandahålls av INRIX. Detta kommersiella dataset innehåller restider som kommer från användare av bl.a. färdnavigatorer i fordon och som har en bred rumslig täckning och hög kvalitet. Idén är att utveckla modeller baserade på artificiellt neuronnät för att automatiskt extrahera samband mellan trafikflödesdata och restidsdata från INRIX-mätningarna baserat på historiska data och med hänsyn till tidsmässiga och rumsliga beroenden. Vi utförde experiment med fyra veckors data från INRIX och från stationära sensorer på två intilliggande vägsegment på E4:an i Stockholm. Modellerna valideras med hjälp av estimering av trafikflöde baserat på en veckas INRIX- data. Jämfört med det traditionella tillvägagångssättet som anpassar stationära samband mellan trafikflöde och hastighet baserat på fundamentaldiagram, förbättrar det nya tillvägagångssättet noggrannheten avsevärt. Dessutom visar resultaten att modellerna i den nya metoden bättre hanterar avvikelser i ingående variabler och kan öka noggrannheten på estimatet för vägsegmentet utan stationär sensor. Den nya metoden kan därför vara lämplig för att uppskatta trafikflöden på vägsegment närliggande en stationär sensor. Metodiken ger ett automatiserat sätt att bygga modeller som är anpassade till datamängderna och som förbättrar noggrannheten vid estimering av trafikflöden. Den kan också enkelt integrera nya datakällor. Metodiken är lämplig att tillämpa på tillämpningar inom intelligenta transportsystem för trafikövervakning och trafikstyrning.

The demand for road freight transport continues to grow with the growing economy, resulting in increased fossil fuel consumption and emissions. At the same time, the fossil fuel use needs to decrease substantially to counteract the ongoing global warming. One way to reduce fuel consumption is to utilize emerging intelligent transport system (ITS) technologies and introduce heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) platooning, i.e. HDVs driving with small inter-vehicle gaps enabled by the use of sensors and controllers. It is of importance for transport authorities and industries to investigate the effects of introducing HDV platooning. Previous studies have investigated the potential benefits, but the effects in real traffic, both for the platoons and for the surrounding vehicles, have barely been explored. To further utilize ITS and optimize the platoons, information about the traffic situation ahead can be used to optimize the vehicle trajectories for the platoons. Paper I presents a dynamic programming-based optimal speed control including information of the traffic situation ahead. The optimal control is applied to HDV platoons in a deceleration case and the potential fuel consumption reduction is evaluated by a microscopic traffic simulation study with HDV platoons driving in real traffic conditions. The effects for the surrounding traffic are also analysed. Paper II and Paper III present a simulation platform to assess the effects of HDV platooning in real traffic conditions. Through simulation studies, the potential fuel consumption reduction by adopting HDV platooning on a real highway stretch is evaluated, and the effects for the other vehicles in the network are investigated. / Efterfrågan på godstransporter på väg fortsätter att öka i takt med den växande ekonomin, vilket resulterar i ökad förbrukning av fossila bränslen och ökade utsläpp. Samtidigt behöver användandet av fossila bränslen minska för att motverka den pågående globala uppvärmningen. Ett sätt för att minska bränsleförbrukningen är att utnyttja den teknik kring intelligenta transportsystem som är under utveckling och introducera lastbilskonvojer, det vill säga lastbilar som använder sensorer och regulatorer för att kunna köra med korta avstånd mellan sig. För transportföretag och -myndigheter är det viktigt att undersöka effekterna av att införa lastbilskonvojkörning. Tidigare studier har undersökt de möjliga fördelarna, men effekterna vid körning i trafik, både för konvojerna och för omgivande fordon, är outforskade. För att ytterligare utnyttja intelligenta transportsystem och optimera konvojerna kan information om trafiksituationen längre fram på vägen användas för att optimera konvojernas körning. Artikel I presenterar en optimal hastighetsregulator baserad på dynamisk programmering och som inkluderar information om trafiksituationen längre fram. Den optimala regulatorn appliceras på lastbilskonvojer under ett inbromsningsscenario och den potentiella minskningen i bränsleförbrukning utvärderas genom en mikroskopisk trafiksimuleringsstudie där lastbilskonvojerna kör i verkliga trafikförhållanden. Effekterna för omgivande fordon är också analyserade.Artikel II och artikel III presenterar en simuleringsplattform för att utvärdera effekterna av lastbilskonvojkörning i verkliga trafikförhållanden. Genom simuleringsstudier analyseras den potentiella bränsleförbrukningsminskningen då lastbilskonvojer körs på en verklig motorvägssträcka och effekterna för de övriga fordonen på vägen undersöks. / <p>QC 20180516</p>

More than a million people die every year due to road traffic accidents globally where one in five serious or fatal accidents occurs during severe weather conditions. Sweden is in the lead of Vision Zero, with the aim of zero casualties due to road traffic, and every year new countries and organisations accept the challenge of saving lives. Early studies have shown that one way of decreasing casualties is to implement floating car data (FCD), which is data obtained from connected road vehicles. One example of such an implementation is to gather knowledge about the current state of the road network enabling targeted winter road maintenance. By implementing FCD for winter road maintenance, besides creating safer roads, savings will be made for the environment by reducing the use of fossil fuels and salt. Since the fleet of road vehicles is going towards being fully autonomous, the volumes of FCD will increase rapidly generating new possibilities for FCD usage. Recent research regarding FCD has mainly focused on traffic flow, speed and route optimisation, together with general methods for FCD mining creating intelligent transport systems. Studies have also been made to cover the gap between road weather information systems (RWIS) monitoring the road condition and thereby improving road weather forecasts. But there is a need for research regarding the implementation of FCD at a level of action, closer to the road users improving winter road maintenance. Presented in this thesis are results gathered in the project Digital Winter, a project initiated by the Swedish Traffic Administration, where FCD regarding tire-to-road friction has been procured for all public roads in Sweden. Results show promising numbers regarding coverage and reliability for implementation of FCD for winter road maintenance follow-up, managing that assigned levels of road friction are achieved. Examples are given for different areas in Sweden where harsh weather conditions are detected and statistics show coverage of FCD both at a daily and hourly level. Multiple suppliers of FCD have been participating in Digital Winter and the measurements presented, show a correlation between suppliers of FCD and methods that today are approved for winter road maintenance follow-up in Sweden. But also that the friction measured using FCD is closer to the true road friction experienced by road users.

O uso crescente de dispositivos móveis e o advento da Internet das Coisas têm demandado esforços para prover alternativas de comunicação sem fio. A utilização de sistemas óticos para a transmissão de dados apresenta-se como uma tecnologia promissora e complementar à comunicação por radiofrequência, especialmente devido aos desenvolvimentos consideráveis na tecnologia de iluminação por estado sólido e sua adoção em vários domínios. Os diodos de emissão de luz podem ser utilizados na promoção de comunicação por luz visível em ambientes internos e externos. Nos ambientes externos há inúmeras oportunidades a serem exploradas no que concerne aos Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte, visto que os diodos de emissão de luz têm sido utilizados em luminárias públicas, semáforos e veículos. Esta pesquisa propôs o desenvolvimento e a avaliação de um sistema de comunicação por luz visível entre elementos da infraestrutura urbana e veículos, mais especificamente, luminárias públicas baseadas em diodos de emissão de luz e o modal de transporte público representado pelos ônibus que circulam em faixas exclusivas. A metodologia foi composta por simulação computacional e pela construção de um protótipo para auxiliar na validação das soluções propostas. O sistema complementar de comunicação sem fio por meio da luz proposto fornece pode fornecer subsídios à determinação do posicionamento preciso dos ônibus, suprindo as deficiências do sistema GPS em locais menos favoráveis à recepção de seus sinais em uma cidade. Essas informações auxiliam os usuários e os gestores do transporte público, atendendo alguns domínios de serviço em Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte, de acordo com a norma ISO 14813. Os resultados obtidos nos testes com o protótipo, bem como, aqueles observados na simulação, comprovaram a viabilidade do sistema proposto, com o estabelecimento da comunicação entre luminária e ônibus, inclusive quando trafegando a 60 km/h. / The increasing use of mobile devices and the advent of the Internet of Things have called for efforts to provide alternatives for wireless communication. The use of optical systems for data transmission is a promising and complementary technology to radiofrequency communication, especially due to the considerable developments in solidstate lighting technology and its adoption in various domains. Light-emitting diodes can be used to promote visible light communication in indoor and outdoor environments. In outdoor environments there are numerous opportunities to be explored with regard to Intelligent Transport Systems, since light-emitting diodes have been used in public luminaires, traffic lights and vehicles. This research proposed the development and evaluation of a visible light communication system between elements of the urban infrastructure and vehicles, more specifically, public luminaires based on light-emitting diodes and the mode of public transport represented by buses that circulate in exclusive lanes. The methodology was composed by computational simulation and the construction of a prototype, to assist in the validation of the proposed solutions. The proposed complementary wireless communication system through light provides subsidies to determine the precise positioning of buses, supplying deficiencies of the GPS system in places less favorable to the reception of their signals in a city. This information helps the users and the managers of the public transport, attending some service domains in Intelligent Transport Systems, according to the ISO 14813 standard. The results obtained in the tests with the prototype, as well as those observed in the simulation, proved the feasibility of the proposed system, with the establishment of communication between luminaire and bus, even when traveling at 60 km/h.

Submitted by Fabricia Fialho Reginato (fabriciar) on 2015-06-29T23:38:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LuizHenriqueFeltes.pdf: 4322319 bytes, checksum: 98c3bdcf4789bd2a693e9eb290ea92c0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-29T23:38:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuizHenriqueFeltes.pdf: 4322319 bytes, checksum: 98c3bdcf4789bd2a693e9eb290ea92c0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Nenhuma / O uso de computação móvel e ubíqua tem sido estimulado pela grande difusão dos dispositivos móveis, redes sem fio e sistemas de localização. Neste contexto, diversas aplicações estão surgindo em diferentes áreas, como educação, entretenimento, comércio e transportes. Esta dissertação propõe o MD-UTS, um modelo para o desenvolvimento de sistemas ubíquos de transporte. O modelo permite o gerenciamento de diferentes tipos de veículos em uma determinada região. Os veículos são gerenciados de acordo com seus perfis, criando um registro histórico de seu movimento. O modelo fornece informações através de serviços web que podem ser utilizadas por diferentes aplicações. A dissertação também descreve duas aplicações que usam o MD-UTS para gerenciar o transporte urbano. O MD-UTS foi integrado no simulador de transporte urbano chamado SUMO (Simulação da Mobilidade Urbana) para gerar dados sobre os veículos. Os resultados demonstram a viabilidade da proposta, facilitando a construção de aplicações direcionadas para o sistema de transporte. / The use of mobile and ubiquitous computing has been stimulated by the widespread diffusion of mobile devices, wireless networks and location systems. In this context, numerous applications are emerging in different areas such as education, entertainment, commerce and transport. This thesis proposes the MD-UTS, a model for development of ubiquitous transport systems. The model allows management of different types of vehicles in a given region. The vehicles are managed according to their profiles, making a historical record of their movement. The model provides information through web services that can be used by different applications. The thesis also describes two applications that use the MD-UTS to manage urban transport. The MD-UTS has been integrated into urban transport simulator called SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility) to generate data about the vehicles. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed, facilitating the construction of applications directed to the transport system.

Améliorer la sécurité routière passe par une meilleure compréhension des causes d'accidents. Il est donc nécessaire de développer des observatoires discrets pour étudier la manière de conduire de tous les automobilistes. Une partie de cette analyse implique l'utilisation de capteurs mesurant les trajectoires des véhicules sur une portion de route. Deux capteurs innovants ont été crées pour pallier au manque de capteurs suffisamment précis pour ces travaux de recherche : le premier est un capteur à fibres optiques présentant une succession de réseaux de Bragg et le second, protégé par un brevet, est fondé sur une technologie résistive. Le premier repère la déformation locale de fibres optiques noyées à moins d'un centimètre sous la surface de la chaussée. Il utilise la variation de longueurs d'onde engendré par l'extension de la fibre à la zone de contact roue - sol. En utilisant un algorithme adéquat, il est insensible à la température. Le second est constitué de deux conducteurs dont un est résistif. Le poids du véhicule engendre un contact électrique entre les deux conducteurs, transformant la résistance électrique de l'ensemble. Les modèles développés, électrique ainsi que de variation thermique, permettent sa meilleure utilisation. Ils ont été soumis à une expérimentation sur une route départementale. Le capteur optique s'avère plus performant mais coûteux. Le deuxième n'est pas assez robuste mais présente des perspectives intéressantes. / This action stake is not technology for itself. It is a great help the development of new safety functions, e.g. the estimation of driver’s behaviour based uponthe vehicle’s trajectory. This trajectory is determined via two sensors we developed. This system must not disturb the driver and should therefore remain invisible to him. The first one is a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor. It detects local strain due to the vehicle weight. The fiber is embedded in the road thanks to resin used in other traffic sensors. The vehicle location is spotted according to the variations of Bragg wavelengths. The fiber extension located under the ground - wheel contact zone changes the step of the Bragg grating. The second one is based upon two conductors. One of them has a grater electrical resistance. The vehicle’s weight creates a link between the two conductors. The resulting electrical resistance provides a lateral position estimation of the vehicle. Electrical and thermic models and simulation even increase the sensor reliability. A caveat is lodged. Both of them were tested on a secondary road. To put in a nutshell, the FBG sensor gives better results but is very expensive (sensors and interrogator too). The resistance sensor is not much raw nevertheless it has interesting perspectives.

O uso crescente de dispositivos móveis e o advento da Internet das Coisas têm demandado esforços para prover alternativas de comunicação sem fio. A utilização de sistemas óticos para a transmissão de dados apresenta-se como uma tecnologia promissora e complementar à comunicação por radiofrequência, especialmente devido aos desenvolvimentos consideráveis na tecnologia de iluminação por estado sólido e sua adoção em vários domínios. Os diodos de emissão de luz podem ser utilizados na promoção de comunicação por luz visível em ambientes internos e externos. Nos ambientes externos há inúmeras oportunidades a serem exploradas no que concerne aos Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte, visto que os diodos de emissão de luz têm sido utilizados em luminárias públicas, semáforos e veículos. Esta pesquisa propôs o desenvolvimento e a avaliação de um sistema de comunicação por luz visível entre elementos da infraestrutura urbana e veículos, mais especificamente, luminárias públicas baseadas em diodos de emissão de luz e o modal de transporte público representado pelos ônibus que circulam em faixas exclusivas. A metodologia foi composta por simulação computacional e pela construção de um protótipo para auxiliar na validação das soluções propostas. O sistema complementar de comunicação sem fio por meio da luz proposto fornece pode fornecer subsídios à determinação do posicionamento preciso dos ônibus, suprindo as deficiências do sistema GPS em locais menos favoráveis à recepção de seus sinais em uma cidade. Essas informações auxiliam os usuários e os gestores do transporte público, atendendo alguns domínios de serviço em Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte, de acordo com a norma ISO 14813. Os resultados obtidos nos testes com o protótipo, bem como, aqueles observados na simulação, comprovaram a viabilidade do sistema proposto, com o estabelecimento da comunicação entre luminária e ônibus, inclusive quando trafegando a 60 km/h. / The increasing use of mobile devices and the advent of the Internet of Things have called for efforts to provide alternatives for wireless communication. The use of optical systems for data transmission is a promising and complementary technology to radiofrequency communication, especially due to the considerable developments in solidstate lighting technology and its adoption in various domains. Light-emitting diodes can be used to promote visible light communication in indoor and outdoor environments. In outdoor environments there are numerous opportunities to be explored with regard to Intelligent Transport Systems, since light-emitting diodes have been used in public luminaires, traffic lights and vehicles. This research proposed the development and evaluation of a visible light communication system between elements of the urban infrastructure and vehicles, more specifically, public luminaires based on light-emitting diodes and the mode of public transport represented by buses that circulate in exclusive lanes. The methodology was composed by computational simulation and the construction of a prototype, to assist in the validation of the proposed solutions. The proposed complementary wireless communication system through light provides subsidies to determine the precise positioning of buses, supplying deficiencies of the GPS system in places less favorable to the reception of their signals in a city. This information helps the users and the managers of the public transport, attending some service domains in Intelligent Transport Systems, according to the ISO 14813 standard. The results obtained in the tests with the prototype, as well as those observed in the simulation, proved the feasibility of the proposed system, with the establishment of communication between luminaire and bus, even when traveling at 60 km/h.

Variable Speed Limits (VSL) are often used to improve traffic conditions on congested motorways. VSL can be implemented as mandatory or advisory. The objective of the thesis isto study in detail the effectiveness of VSL. The focus is on both, design parameters and conditions under which VSL are most effective. The MCS system on the E4 motorway inStockholm is used as a case study. The evaluation was conducted using empirical methods (including aggregate data from microwave sensors and other sources, and disaggregate data from a mobile study), and microscopic traffic simulation. The empirical analysis is based on before and after VSL data, including evaluation of individual measures of performance, and multivariate analysis in the form of the fundamental diagram, and speed-density relationships. The results from the empirical study are mixed with an indication that driver behavior has a strong impact on the effectiveness of the system. The microscopic traffic simulation analysis included the development of a platform for testing VSL and more generally motorway control strategies. The simulation platform was calibrated and validated with the empirical data and includes in addition to VSL, and Automatic Incident Detection (AID) system, the ALINEA ramp metering algorithm. The test-platform allows the testing of different control strategies and various combinations of control strategies, under different scenarios and in a controlled environment. The results from the simulation study indicate that driver compliance is an important factor and VSL performance quickly deteriorates as compliance rate drops. Hence, VSL should be implemented as mandatory instead of advisory. In addition, mandatory VSL can be effective both, under incident and moderately congested conditions. A combined VSL and ramp metering strategy can be most effective in reducing travel time, improving traffic conditions on the motorway. Furthermore, the results indicate that such a strategy also has the least impact on the flows entering the motorway from the ramps. / QC20100630

Algunas aplicaciones de carretera actuales, tales como los servicios de información al viajero, llamadas de emergencia automáticas, control de flotas o telepeaje eletrónico, requieren una solución de calidad al problema del posicionamiento de un vehículo terrestre, que funcione en cualquier entorno y a un coste razonable. Esta tesis presenta una solución a este problema, fusionando para ello la información procedente principalmente de sensores de navegación por satélite y sensores inerciales. Para ello emplea un nuevo filtro de fusion multisensorial IMM-EKF. El comportamiento del sistema ha sido analizado en entornos reales y controlados, y comparado con otras soluciones propuestas. Finalmente, su aplicabilidad al problema planteado ha sido verificada. / Road applications such as traveller information, automatic emergency calls, freight management or electronic fee, collection require a onboard equipment (OBE) capable to offer a high available accurate position, even in unfriendly environments with low satellite visibility at low cost. Specifically in life critical applications, users demand from the OBEs accurate continuous positioning and information of the reliability of this position. This thesis presents a solution based on the fusion of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and inertial sensors (GNSS/INS), running an Extended Kalman Filter combined with an Interactive Multi-Model method (IMM-EKF). The solution developed in this work supplies continuous positioning in marketable conditions, and a meaningful trust level of the given solution. A set of tests performed in controlled and real scenarios proves the suitability of the proposed IMM-EKF implementation, as compared with low cost GNSS based solutions, dead reckoning systems and single model extended Kalman filter (SM-EKF) solutions.