Cooperative Cruising: Reinforcement Learning-Based Time-Headway Control for Increased Traffic Efficiency
This addresses traffic congestion for road users by offering a potentially practical and scalable solution, though it is incremental as it builds on existing adaptive cruise control and connectivity technologies.
The paper tackles the problem of improving traffic efficiency in realistic multi-lane highway scenarios by proposing a reinforcement learning-based controller that dynamically adjusts time-headways for automated vehicles near bottlenecks, resulting in increased traffic efficiency compared to human-like traffic in simulations.
The proliferation of connected automated vehicles represents an unprecedented opportunity for improving driving efficiency and alleviating traffic congestion. However, existing research fails to address realistic multi-lane highway scenarios without assuming connectivity, perception, and control capabilities that are typically unavailable in current vehicles. This paper proposes a novel AI system that is the first to improve highway traffic efficiency compared with human-like traffic in realistic, simulated multi-lane scenarios, while relying on existing connectivity, perception, and control capabilities. At the core of our approach is a reinforcement learning based controller that dynamically communicates time-headways to automated vehicles near bottlenecks based on real-time traffic conditions. These desired time-headways are then used by adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems to adjust their following distance. By (i) integrating existing traffic estimation technology and low-bandwidth vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity, (ii) leveraging safety-certified ACC systems, and (iii) targeting localized bottleneck challenges that can be addressed independently in different locations, we propose a potentially practical, safe, and scalable system that can positively impact numerous road users.