Abstract
Automated Vehicles (AV’s) can intermingle with pedestrians and cyclists when they are driving slowly in so-called “shared spaces”. Smaller “people movers” traveling in pedestrian-dense urban areas fall in this category. However, at higher speeds on open roadways, AV’s need to be aware of the possibility of emergence of occluded pedestrians or cyclists. In such situations, the pedestrians and cyclists are referred to as Vulnerable Road Users (VRU’s).
In our previous work, we studied AVs' energy consumption and safety when occluded pedestrians appear suddenly in front of the AV. We also indicated that an entropy-based metric may be used to quantify the value of the information regarding the location of the emergent pedestrian or cyclist. In a separate work we investigated a risk-based control strategy when the probability distribution of emergent pedestrians is known. In yet another study, we investigated the effect of adding a sensor to the roadside infrastructure to provide information to an oncoming vehicle, regarding a crossing pedestrian around the corner. We labeled this the Extended Sensor.
We will continue investigating and developing our "value of information" based approach to evaluate additional sensors in the infrastructure. We shal consider regular intersections and will initiate a study on specific configurations.
We will initiate a study on "indecisive pedestrians". These will be pedestrians who may stop or turn back while crossing the street, depending on their assesment of the approaching vehicle. We will assume that the vehicle will also make a decision on stopping, continuing and/or dodging the pedestrian.
We will study a pedestrian crossing two lanes of traffic, with different direction traffic flow. We shall model the pedestrian dynamics for a direct two-lane crossing vs a crossing attempt with a wait stage in between the lanes.
Description
Timeline
Strategic Description / RD&T
We are specifically addressing the following from the 2022-26 Strategic Plan:
Safety Culture and Behavior: Improve the understanding of attitudes and behaviors toward transportation system safety, and support changes to reduce unsafe behaviors and promote safe travel. (p18)
Safe Design: Evaluate the safety performance of infrastructure design and develop and promote the use of effective safety countermeasures. • Perform research to support the development of training, policy guidance, and technical assistance to aid implementation of a Safe System approach. • Identify and support strategies to increase vulnerable road user safety (e.g., pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and people with disabilities). • Develop and promote effective methods to assess and address traffc safety risks in rural and underserved communities (p19)
Safety Data: Research and develop new methodologies and tools for safety data collection, man agement, analysis, and evaluation. • Develop safety data collection methods and advanced safety data and risk analysis tech niques to identify and analyze emerging safety issues. • Provide the scientifc and engineering basis for policy decisions, improved industry stan dards, and enforcement and compliance matters. • Assess safety incident trends and causes to enhance safety requirements and best practices (p19)
Safe Technology: Advance transportation safety by evaluating the safety of existing transportation technologies and supporting the safe integration of emerging technologies. • Develop test tools, procedures, and performance measures that enable improved safety, durability (p. 19)
Deployment Plan
Quarter #1:
We will continue investigating and developing our "value of information" based approach to evaluate additional sensors in the infrastructure. We shal consider regular intersections and will initiate a study on specific configurations.
Quarter #2:
We will initiate a study on "indecisive pedestrians". These will be pedestrians who may stop or turn back while crossing the street, depending on their assessment of the approaching vehicle. We will assume that the vehicle will also make a decision on stopping, continuing and/or dodging the pedestrian.
Quarter #3:
We will study a pedestrian crossing two lanes of traffic, with different direction traffic flow. We shall model the pedestrian dynamics for a direct two-lane crossing vs a crossing attempt with a wait stage in between the lanes.
Expected Outcomes/Impacts
The above may be considered as answering a very useful question like: “When is it worth municipalities to invest in additional camera-based infrastructure to help connected vehicles?”
Both time optimal and fuel optimal traffic flow, for either individual Connected AV’s or total Connected traffic throughout a time span will be considered and multiple scenarios inspired by ISO standard 22737 section 3.1 will be generated. This approach will also help identify critical challenges related to Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communication,
Expected Outputs
As mentioned above, our work on "value of information" may lead to tools to compare investment decision on infrastructure. Specifically, we should be able to evaluate the effect of adding sensors and networking to warn approaching vehicles.
On the other hand, our investigation on indecisive pedestrians is a modeling and simulation study and its effects are more long term. It will lead to better understanding on pedestrian (and possibly other VRU) behavior and future reduction of risk, based on new technology.
TRID
We have searched the TRID data base and noted the unique aspects of our research.
Some portions of this work is an outcome or previous projects from this UTC, where we had initiated activity on modeling pedestrian and crowd motion, and interaction with vehicles. (See citations above.)
We anticipate collaboration with other Universities in the Safety21 UTC and with researchers at another UTC at the Ohio State University.
Individuals Involved
| Email |
Name |
Affiliation |
Role |
Position |
| ozguner.1@osu.edu |
Ozguner, Umit |
OSU |
PI |
Faculty - Tenured |
| redmill.1@osu.edu |
Redmill, Keith |
The Ohio State University |
Other |
Other |
Budget
Amount of UTC Funds Awarded
$44423.00
Total Project Budget (from all funding sources)
$73848.00
Documents
Match Sources
No match sources!
Partners
| Name |
Type |
| Ohio Department of Transportation |
Deployment & Equity Partner Deployment & Equity Partner |
