Intersection Vehicle Control Using Edge-Based Trajectory Grouping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for controlling vehicles at intersecting roads and highway merging points face challenges due to communication limitations, especially with heterogeneous vehicular communication technologies and the impracticality of real-time decision-making in cloud-based systems, which can lead to safety issues and inefficient traffic flow.
Innovation Solution
Implementing edge devices such as roadside units (RSUs) for real-time joint control, partitioning roads into sequencing and control zones to limit vehicle interactions, and using edge computing to group vehicles and determine optimal motion trajectories, ensuring safe and efficient passage without stopping.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If cloud-based systems are used for real-time vehicle control decisions, then centralized data processing capability is improved, but communication delay increases and real-time response deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the control system into edge devices deployed at strategic locations along the roadway and cloud-based centralized control. Edge devices handle real-time local decisions to minimize communication delay, while the cloud provides centralized data processing for non-time-critical operations. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by distributing processing functions according to timing requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces edge devices as intermediary components between vehicles and the cloud-based control system. These edge devices receive vehicle data, perform local processing and control decisions, and only communicate with the cloud when necessary. This intermediary layer eliminates the need for all communications to traverse the full cloud path, significantly reducing latency for time-critical control decisions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If heterogeneous communication technologies are supported, then compatibility and coverage are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal communication framework at the edge device level that can interface with multiple heterogeneous communication technologies (DSRC, C-V2X, 5G, etc.). The edge devices are designed with multi-functional communication capabilities, allowing them to receive data from and send commands to vehicles using different communication standards. This universality approach maintains compatibility across diverse technologies while keeping individual vehicle systems relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The edge devices serve as intermediary translation layers between heterogeneous communication protocols. Rather than requiring every vehicle to support all communication technologies, the edge devices handle protocol conversion and interoperability, absorbing the complexity of supporting multiple standards at the infrastructure level rather than the vehicle level.
3Speed
If on-board control devices make autonomous decisions, then vehicle-specific knowledge and responsiveness are improved, but information availability and communication capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by having edge devices pre-process and aggregate information from multiple vehicles and environmental sensors before vehicles make autonomous decisions. Vehicles receive pre-computed information about neighboring vehicles, road conditions, and optimal trajectories in advance, reducing their information gathering burden and enabling faster local decision-making with more complete information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous feedback loops where edge devices monitor vehicle states, communicate relevant information to vehicles, and receive updates on vehicle decisions and environmental changes. This feedback mechanism ensures vehicles have access to current information about neighboring vehicles and conditions, enabling informed autonomous decisions while maintaining system-wide coordination through the edge infrastructure.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system jointly controls vehicles according to traffic configuration of a zone of intersection of a first road and a second road. The intersection zone includes a sequencing zone and a control zone covering sections of the first and the second road in proximity to the intersection. The system groups vehicles traveling within the sequencing zone on the first and the second roads into a set of groups of the vehicles and prevents the vehicles of different groups to travel concurrently in the control zone such that the first vehicle of the following group cannot pass the last vehicle of the preceding group. The system determines motion trajectories for the vehicles of the same group traveling in the control zone on the first and the second roads to pass the intersection and transmits the motion trajectories to the corresponding vehicles.