Conflict resolution in multi-vehicle systems: A resource allocation paradigm

This paper proposes a novel paradigm for conflict resolution in multi-vehicle traffic systems where a number of mobile agents move freely in a finite area, each agent following a motion profile designated to it. The key idea underlying the proposed method is the tesselation of the underlying motion area in a number of cells of a certain shape and size, and the treatment of these cells as resources that must be acquired by the mobile agents for the execution of the corresponding segments of their motion profiles, through an appropriate resource allocation protocol. In this way, it is possible to capitalize upon the existing literature on the real-time management of sequential resource allocation systems, and develop supervisory control policies that can formally guarantee the safe and live operation of the underlying traffic system, while they remain scalable with respect to the number of the moving agents.