A New Movement Authority Based on Vehicle-Centric Communication

The communication system that is presently applied in the European Train Control System can only support data exchange between vehicles and ground, but the direct vehicle-to-vehicle communication is not available. The details of interlocking information and other vehicles’ movements are invisible to drivers who are the last defense to prevent unsafe scenarios. As connected vehicles have been envisioned to enhance transportation efficiency and improve safety, the direct vehicle-to-vehicle communication network is involved in this paper to increase the safety of railway transport. In this paper, a new train movement authority (MA+) is proposed. Apart from a wireless communication unit, this system does not require any other infrastructure. With the assistance of vehicle-centric communication technology, MA+ can detect the condition of switches and trains within a certain scope. In this paper, the system structure of MA+ is proposed. Additionally, different implementation scenarios are also discussed. The detection range is estimated and validated based on mathematical calculation and experimental equations. An application demo of MA+ is presented on the Driver Machine Interface of the onboard equipment. The results indicate that MA+ can be a flexible and scalable system for furthering the improvement of railway safety.

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State Estimation for Cooperative Lateral Vehicle Following Using Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

Electronics ◽

10.3390/electronics10060651 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 651

Author(s):

Wouter Schinkel ◽

Tom van der Sande ◽

Henk Nijmeijer

Keyword(s):

State Estimation ◽

Cooperative Control ◽

The State ◽

State Estimator ◽

Estimation Process ◽

Vehicle Communication ◽

Vehicle To Vehicle ◽

Control Schemes ◽

Input Signals ◽

Vehicle To Vehicle Communication

A cooperative state estimation framework for automated vehicle applications is presented and demonstrated via simulations, the estimation framework is used to estimate the state of a lead and following vehicle simultaneously. Recent developments in the field of cooperative driving require novel techniques to ensure accurate and stable vehicle following behavior. Control schemes for the cooperative control of longitudinal and lateral vehicle dynamics generally require vehicle state information about the lead vehicle, which in some cases cannot be accurately measured. Including vehicle-to-vehicle communication in the state estimation process can provide the required input signals for the practical implementation of cooperative control schemes. This study is focused on demonstrating the benefits of using vehicle-to-vehicle communication in the state estimation of a lead and following vehicle via simulations. The state estimator, which uses a cascaded Kalman filtering process, takes the operating frequencies of different sensors into account in the estimation process. Simulation results of three different driving scenarios demonstrate the benefits of using vehicle-to-vehicle communication as well as the attenuation of measurement noise. Furthermore, in contrast to relying on low frequency measurement data for the input signals of cooperative control schemes, the state estimator provides a state estimate at every sample.

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