Rule-Based On-Off Traffic Control Strategy for CAVs on Motorway Networks: Assessing Cooperation Level and Driving Homogeneity

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) attract much attention due to their unique behavioral characteristics and the promise to transform road transport systems as we know them today. However, the behavior of such vehicles on the road is not homogeneous since each manufacturer offers different implementations. Cooperation is essential to homogenize the traffic flow of CAVs and prevent delays on congested networks with high demand. This work proposes a rule-based decentralized on- off cooperation strategy at merging locations on freeway networks using CAVs as mobile actuators. The proposed strategy handles bilateral conflicts at on- ramps between vehicles with conflicting trajectories, taking actions at the vehicle level in a lateral or longitudinal direction, to minimize the disturbance for the following vehicles. Furthermore, heterogeneity among such vehicles is assessed through different parameter distributions among CAVs to demonstrate the importance of ensuring homogeneous dynamics in the vehicle operation design. Microscopic simulation is used to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed strategy and the value of homogeneous dynamics. The results show that cooperation of CAVs decreases the average network delay time by up to 46%. Homogeneous driving behavior amplifies the benefit of the cooperative strategy significantly.