Component-Based Interactive Framework for Intelligent Transportation Cyber-Physical Systems

Area of Science:

• Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
• Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in transportation

Background:

• The widespread adoption of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) is progressing, but a mixed-traffic environment with non-autonomous vehicles (NAVs) and human drivers is inevitable for the foreseeable future.
• Ensuring road safety during this transition period, characterized by mixed vehicular traffic and the unpredictability of human drivers, is a critical challenge for urban transportation systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and develop a component-based, interactive intelligent transportation cyber-physical systems (ITCPS) framework to address the safety challenges of mixed CAV and NAV traffic.
• To provide a standardized structure for ITCPS components, behavior models, and interfaces, facilitating the integration and interaction of autonomous and human-driven vehicles.

Main Methods:

• Development of an interactive ITCPS framework implemented as a human and hardware-in-the-loop system.
• Creation of practical applications, including an intersection crossing assistance service and an automatic emergency braking service, to demonstrate the framework's utility.
• Performance evaluation through real-time processing tests under high traffic volume conditions and a statistical case study involving human drivers.

Main Results:

• The proposed ITCPS framework successfully meets the timing requirements for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication and behavior model execution, even at road capacity.
• Case study results validate the framework's reliability and demonstrate that V2V communication positively impacts road safety, specifically intersection safety, braking events, and perception-reaction time (PRT).
• V2V communication support and PRT were identified as key indicators for road safety at un-signalized intersections.

Conclusions:

• The interactive ITCPS framework provides a robust solution for managing mixed traffic environments, enhancing safety during the transition to fully autonomous vehicles.
• The framework offers valuable experimental support for analyzing human behavior in mixed traffic and contributes to building comprehensive urban ITCPS environments.
• V2V communication is a crucial element for improving road safety, particularly in complex scenarios like un-signalized intersections.