Next-Generation Interchange Control Based on Centralized Management of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

With the rapid advancement of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) in terms of testing and usage, the implementation of the autonomous interchange in the real world has become more realistic than before. Since the beginning of the last decade, the concept of autonomous intersection has been developed with slightly different techniques. This paper introduces a next-generation interchange control algorithm (NIC) that deals with service interchange terminals for the CAV with the ability to adjust the dimensions and geometric designs. It proposes six different geometric designs that have been modeled in a simulation software package (VISSIM) to employ the NIC algorithm. The system depicted a real-world scenario of an interchange with a slight modification on the geometric design to provide smoother entry to the interchange terminal. The analysis of the proposed designs in terms of throughput, capacity, delay, and volume-to-capacity (V/C) ratio indicated different performance measurements based on the analyzed traffic movements. Tight turn with one left dedicated turn provided the highest performance, while wide turn with two left shared turns indicated the lowest performance. Both NIC designs demonstrated significantly higher throughputs and significantly lower delays compared to a current traffic signal system. By applying the NIC with the existence of the CAV, the operation of highway interchange can be significantly improved.