A sequenced-based protocol to manage autonomous vehicles at isolated intersections

Several papers claim that the cooperative intersection management significantly improves the intersection performance. The cooperative intersection management is based on the negotiation of the “right of way” between vehicles. This paper focusses on the sequence-based protocol. The last version of this protocol relies on a simple signalization system that is “green” or “red” displayed by an onboard screen to the driver. Autonomous vehicles theoretically enhance the performance of the intersection through the cruise control. This paper extends the sequence-based protocol through a high-level signalization system in which a speed limitation is determined by the sequence and respected by the autonomous vehicle. For safety reasons, the proposed protocol, called Transparent Intersection Management, takes into consideration the communication latency as well as the asynchronous sampling times of the embedded systems. The paper shows that the autonomous vehicles are interesting if the communication time is close to zero, otherwise an efficient policy for sequencing the access of vehicles to the intersection is required.