Traffic Light Passing Advisory for Group-Aware Vehicle Speed Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle control strategies that optimize fuel efficiency at individual traffic lights can adversely affect the performance of surrounding vehicles, leading to sub-optimal group-level efficiency in terms of fuel consumption, emissions, and travel time.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle controller that senses surrounding vehicles and traffic conditions, adjusts its velocity profile to allow following vehicles to pass traffic lights during go periods, minimizing fuel consumption and emissions by coordinating speed control strategies among a group of vehicles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If a vehicle uses a slow and go strategy to optimize its own fuel consumption at traffic lights, then individual vehicle fuel efficiency is improved, but following vehicles are forced to stop at traffic lights they would have been able to pass through, degrading group-level efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the control decisions of multiple vehicles into a coordinated group-level strategy. The vehicle controller considers the presence and trajectories of surrounding vehicles when determining velocity profiles, combining individual vehicle optimization with group efficiency goals to resolve the contradiction between individual fuel savings and collective productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary assessment of surrounding vehicles' positions and trajectories before finalizing the velocity profile. By evaluating whether following vehicles can pass traffic lights during go-periods using the first velocity profile, the system takes preliminary action to adjust control strategies and avoid forcing other vehicles to stop, thus maintaining group-level efficiency while still achieving fuel optimization.
2Loss of time
If a vehicle adopts a stop and go strategy to pass traffic lights, then it can maintain higher speeds and reduce travel time, but excessive acceleration and deceleration waste fuel
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic velocity profile adjustment based on real-time conditions. The vehicle controller continuously evaluates traffic light phases, surrounding vehicle positions, and group efficiency metrics to dynamically select between stop-and-go and slow-and-go strategies, optimizing the balance between travel time and fuel consumption adaptively rather than using a fixed approach.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes velocity profile parameters based on detected conditions. When a following vehicle is detected within a critical distance, the lead vehicle modifies its velocity profile parameters (speed, acceleration, deceleration rates) to allow the following vehicle to pass through go-periods, thereby reducing overall group fuel consumption while managing travel time through coordinated control.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, vehicles and systems for managing vehicle velocity along routes having traffic lights. The behavior of an individual vehicle is adjusted to account for surrounding vehicles to avoid inefficient outcomes across a group of vehicles. A vehicle is configured to determine the presence of other vehicles in a defined following distance, and uses the presence of such other vehicles to adjust its own travel strategy, with or without communication or coordination with, or control over, the other vehicles.