Iftekharul Islam

Iftekharul Islam, Weizi Li

Effective mixed traffic control requires balancing efficiency, fairness, and safety. Existing approaches excel at optimizing efficiency and enforcing safety constraints but lack mechanisms to ensure equitable service, resulting in systematic starvation of vehicles on low-demand approaches. We propose a hierarchical framework combining multi-objective reinforcement learning for local intersection control with strategic routing for network-level coordination. Our approach introduces a Conflict Threat Vector that provides agents with explicit risk signals for proactive conflict avoidance, and a queue parity penalty that ensures equitable service across all traffic streams. Extensive experiments on a real-world network across different robot vehicle (RV) penetration rates demonstrate substantial improvements: up to 53% reductions in average wait time, up to 86% reductions in maximum starvation, and up to 86\% reduction in conflict rate compared to baselines, while maintaining fuel efficiency. Our analysis reveals that strategic routing effectiveness scales with RV penetration, becoming increasingly valuable at higher autonomy levels. The results demonstrate that multi-objective optimization through well-curated reward functions paired with strategic RV routing yields significant benefits in fairness and safety metrics critical for equitable mixed-autonomy deployment.

Chandra Raskoti, Iftekharul Islam, Xuan Wang et al.

Accurate vehicle trajectory prediction is critical for safe and efficient autonomous driving, especially in mixed traffic environments when both human-driven and autonomous vehicles co-exist. However, uncertainties introduced by inherent driving behaviors -- such as acceleration, deceleration, and left and right maneuvers -- pose significant challenges for reliable trajectory prediction. We introduce a Maneuver-Intention-Aware Transformer (MIAT) architecture, which integrates a maneuver intention awareness control mechanism with spatiotemporal interaction modeling to enhance long-horizon trajectory predictions. We systematically investigate the impact of varying awareness of maneuver intention on both short- and long-horizon trajectory predictions. Evaluated on the real-world NGSIM dataset and benchmarked against various transformer- and LSTM-based methods, our approach achieves an improvement of up to 4.7% in short-horizon predictions and a 1.6% in long-horizon predictions compared to other intention-aware benchmark methods. Moreover, by leveraging intention awareness control mechanism, MIAT realizes an 11.1% performance boost in long-horizon predictions, with a modest drop in short-horizon performance. The source code and datasets are available at https://github.com/cpraskoti/MIAT.

Anika Tabassum Orchi, Md Farhan Zaman, Md Darain Khan et al.

A Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is a tethered underwater robot used for tasks like inspection and intervention. While essential tools for underwater science, the high cost of commercial ROVs and a persistent gap between mechanically capable platforms and those with integrated intelligence create a significant barrier to access. HyDRA Scorpion differs from conventional systems by addressing these challenges, integrating an advanced, AI-driven perception stack with in-situ measurement capabilities onto a low-cost, locally manufacturable platform. The system combines 4-DoF maneuverability, dual manipulators, and a custom pressure-tested housing. Experimental results validate the system's robustness and performance. Leak-free operation was confirmed through prolonged pressure testing of the electronics housing to 4 bar, equivalent to the pressure of a 304.8-meter water depth approximately in a simulated environment, with no moisture ingress detected. The vehicle also demonstrated stable station-keeping, maintaining its position within a tight tolerance of $\(\pm\)0.15$ meters under external disturbances. The onboard AI module achieved underwater object detection mean Average Precision (mAP) of 0.89 with real-time inference, length and 3D-mapping based distance measurement. Also, 4-DoF manipulator arm can grip and maintain dual-function manipulator feature which support 360 degree tangle-free rotation.

Iftekharul Islam, Weizi Li

Managing mixed traffic comprising human-driven and robot vehicles (RVs) across large-scale networks presents unique challenges beyond single-intersection control. This paper proposes a reinforcement learning framework for coordinating mixed traffic across multiple interconnected intersections. Our key contribution is a neighbor-aware reward mechanism that enables RVs to maintain balanced distribution across the network while optimizing local intersection efficiency. We evaluate our approach using a real-world network, demonstrating its effectiveness in managing realistic traffic patterns. Results show that our method reduces average waiting times by 39.2% compared to the state-of-the-art single-intersection control policy and 79.8% compared to traditional traffic signals. The framework's ability to coordinate traffic across multiple intersections while maintaining balanced RV distribution provides a foundation for deploying learning-based solutions in urban traffic systems.