Moving Slot Concept for Automated Highway Control

The objective of this report is to optimize performance of AutomatedHighway Systems through management of space accounting for interaction between entrance and exit processes. To accomplish this objective, we develop acomprehensive framework, including a new integrated highway model called the moving slot model, and operational strategies, called slot/lane assignment rules. Themodel manages highway space to maximize capacity accounting for safety and vehicle maneuvers. Operational strategies minimize space requirements by formingvehicles into specific patterns of destinations through entry and lane-change control such that vehicles can exit successfully. This research aims to expedite theapplication of Automated Highway Systems without significantly altering system configurations while optimizing performance in terms of capacity and travel time.In the moving slot model, an operational unit, called a slot in a one-lane highway and a stack in a multi-lane highway, contains the minimal space foraccommodating vehicles and supporting necessary maneuvers without affecting other units. This design provides independence among operational units and canvary with system parameters such as number of vehicles in a platoon. This not only reduces the complexity of system control but also makes the framework adaptable tovarious system requirements. We provide both theoretical and simulation results for system performance of a simplified highway under the framework as well assimulation results for varied system configurations.