Mixed Traffic: A Perspective from Long Duration Autonomy

Abstract

The rapid adoption of autonomous vehicle has established mixed traffic environments, comprising both autonomous and human-driven vehicles (HDVs), as essential components of next-generation mobility systems. Along these lines, connectivity between autonomous vehicles and infrastructure (V2I) is also a significant factor that can effectively support higher-level decision-making. At the same time, the integration of V2I within mixed traffic environments remains a timely and challenging problem. In this paper, we present a long-duration autonomy controller for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) operating in such environments, with a focus on intersections where right turns on red are permitted. We begin by deriving the optimal control policy for CAVs under free-flow traffic. Next, we analyze crossing time constraints imposed by smart traffic lights and map these constraints to controller bounds using Control Barrier Functions (CBFs), with the aim to drive a CAV to cross the intersection on time. We also introduce criteria for identifying, in real-time, feasible crossing intervals for each CAV. To ensure safety for the CAVs, we present model-agnostic safety guarantees, and demonstrate their compatibility with both CAVs and HDVs. Ultimately, the final control actions are enforced through a combination of CBF constraints, constraining CAVs to traverse the intersection within the designated time intervals while respecting other vehicles. Finally, we guarantee that our control policy yields always a feasible solution and validate the proposed approach through extensive simulations in MATLAB.