Project: #424 Safe and efficient automated freeway traffic control Progress Report - Reporting Period Ending: March 31, 2024 Principal Investigator: Benjamin Coifman Status: Active Start Date: July 1, 2023 End Date: June 30, 2024 Research Type: None Grant Type: Research Advanced Grant Program: US DOT BIL, Safety21, 2023 - 2028 (4811) Grant Cycle: Safety21 : 23-24 Progress Report (Last Updated: March 28, 2024, 2:39 p.m.) % Project Completed to Date: None % Grant Award Expended: None % Match Expended & Document: None USDOT Requirements Accomplishments Goals: Approach CAV traffic control by first establishing the desired macroscopic traffic states along a freeway corridor and continually update the desired states to anticipate and respond to disturbances To date we have developed a technique to use instantaneous information from vehicles along a corridor to forecast the trajectory of a vehicle that is just entering the corridor (on the order of a 30 second forecast). Using the forecasted trajectory we then estimate the constant speed trajectory that gets to the same end point. This "target trajectory" avoids the negative aspects of speed fluctuations (reduced safety during decelerations and increased emissions and fuel consumption during accelerations). Then we have the entering vehicle follow this new trajectory. We continually update the "target trajectory" while also ensuring it always maintains a safe distance from the leader in case that vehicle slows or otherwise interrupts the target trajectory. This approach has been shown to negate a stop wave. No development or dissemination was done this period Over the next period we seek to expand the testing to other conditions, and seek ways to use the work to build buffers in the traffic stream (voids between platoons of vehicles) that will naturally attenuate future disturbances. Impacts The results are progressing on track. The work has successfully demonstrated the ability to arrest the propagation of a stop wave with a single controlled vehicle trajectory. Thus, we are on track for the anticipated outcomes through data driven safe design: 1) Efficiently anticipate and respond to traffic disturbances 2) Attenuate and eliminate shockwaves to reduce the severity and number of accidents No technology transfer was undertaken The method of arresting the propagation of a stop wave with a single controlled vehicle trajectory should increase in the body of scientific knowledge by ultimately leading to at least one journal publication while being the focus of a MS degree. Other n/a Outcomes New Partners n/a Issues n/a