Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing of Connected and Automated Vehicle Applications: A Use Case for Queue-Aware Signalized Intersection Approach and Departure

Most existing studies on connected and automated vehicle (CAV) applications apply simulation to evaluate system effectiveness. Model accuracy, limited data for calibration, and simulation assumptions limit the validity of evaluation results. One alternative approach is to use emerging hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing methods. HIL test environments enable physical test vehicles to interact with virtual vehicles from traffic simulation models, providing an evaluation environment that can replicate deployment conditions at early stages of CAV technology implementation without incurring excessive costs related to large field tests. In this study, a HIL testing system for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) CAV applications is developed. The involved software and hardware includes a physical CAV controlled in real time, a traffic signal controller, communication devices, and a traffic simulator (VISSIM). Such HIL systems increase validity by considering the physical vehicle’s trajectories—which are constrained by real-world factors such as GPS accuracy, communication delay, and vehicle dynamics—in a simulated traffic environment. The developed HIL system is applied to test a representative early deployment CAV application: queue-aware signalized intersection approach and departure (Q-SIAD). The Q-SIAD algorithm generates recommended speed profiles based on the vehicle’s status, signal phase and timing (SPaT), downstream queue length, and system constraints and parameters (e.g., maximum acceleration and deceleration). The algorithm also considers the status of other vehicles in designing the speed profiles. The experiment successfully demonstrated this functionality with one test CAV driving through one intersection controlled by a fixed-timing traffic signal under various simulated traffic conditions.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198118793001
• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198118793001
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03611981
• Authors:
  • Ma, Jiaqi
  • Zhou, Fang
  • Huang, Zhitong
  • Melson, Christopher L
  • James, Rachel
  • Zhang, Xiaoxiao
• Publication Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 36-46
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Volume: 2672
  • Issue Number: 22
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0361-1981
  • EISSN: 2169-4052
  • Serial URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/trr

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Algorithms; Autonomous vehicles; Connected vehicles; Dedicated short range communications; Field tests; Hardware in the loop simulation; Intelligent vehicles; Queuing theory; Signalized intersections; Traffic queuing; Traffic signal phases; Traffic signal timing; Traffic simulation; Validity; Vehicle trajectories
• Identifier Terms: Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center; VISSIM (Computer model)
• Geographic Terms: Virginia
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01661058
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05431
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 23 2018 4:37PM