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Malikopoulos, Andreas

Publications and source records attributed to Malikopoulos, Andreas.

Optimal Control of Connected and Automated Vehicles at Roundabouts

Connectivity and automation in vehicles provide the most intriguing opportunity for enabling users to better monitor transportation network conditions and make better operating decisions to improve safety and reduce pollution, energy consumption, and travel delays. This study investigates the implications of optimally coordinating vehicles that are wirelessly connected to each other and to an infrastructure in roundabouts to achieve a smooth traffic flow without stop-and-go driving. We apply an optimization framework and an analytical solution that allows optimal coordination of vehicles for merging in such traffic scenario. The effectiveness of the efficiency of the proposed approach is validated through simulation and it is shown that coordination of vehicles can reduce total travel time by 3~49% and fuel consumption by 2~27% with respect to different traffic levels. In addition, network throughput is improved by up to 25% due to elimination of stop-and-go driving behavior.

Zhao, Liuhui↗

Connected and Automated Vehicle Merging at Highway On-Ramps

Recognition of the necessity for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) is gaining momentum. CAVs can improve both transportation network efficiency and safety through control algorithms that can harmonically use all existing information to coordinate the vehicles. This study addresses the problem of optimally coordinating CAVs at merging roadways to achieve a smooth traffic flow without stop-and-go driving. We present an optimization framework and an analytical, closed-form solution that allows online coordination of vehicles at the merging zone. The effectiveness of the efficiency of the proposed solution is validated through simulation and it is shown that coordination of vehicles can reduce fuel consumption and travel time significantly.

Malikopoulos, Andreas↗

An Overview of Driver Feedback Systems for Efficiency and Safety

Driver feedback systems have the potential to improve driving safety and efficiency by providing instructions to drivers aimed at improving their driving style. There is already a rich body of available literature devoted to the derivation of energy efficient speed profiles to develop driver feedback or eco-driving systems. While most of them can be applied to any type of vehicle, their effectiveness will be maximized if their formulation involves the dynamics of the particular vehicle powertrain configuration. This paper summarizes the research trends in the development of these systems that have been reported in the literature to date classifying them according to the powertrain structure and the nature of the control strategy. The study concludes with a discussion on the remaining challenges and potential future research directions.

Rios Torres, Jackeline↗

Energy Impact of Different Penetrations of Connected and Automated Vehicles: A Preliminary Assessment

Previous research reported in the literature has shown the benefits of traffic coordination to alleviate congestion, and reduce fuel consumption and emissions. However, there are still many remaining challenges that need to be addressed before a massive deployment of fully automated vehicles. This paper aims to investigate the energy impacts of different penetration rates of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and their interaction with human-driven vehicles. We develop a simulation framework for mixed traffic (CAVs interacting with human-driven vehicles) in merging roadways and analyze the energy impact of different penetration rates of CAVs on the energy consumption. The Gipps car following model is used along with heuristic controls to represent the driver decisions in a merging roadways traffic scenario. Using different penetration rates of CAVs, the simulation results indicated that for low penetration rates, the fuel consumption benefits are significant but the total travel time increases. The benefits in travel time are noticeable for higher penetration rates of CAVs.

Rios-Torres, Jackeline↗

Optimal Control and Coordination of Connected and Automated Vehicles at Urban Traffic Intersections

We address the problem of coordinating online a continuous flow of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) crossing two adjacent intersections in an urban area. We present a decentralized optimal control framework whose solution yields for each vehicle the optimal acceleration/deceleration at any time in the sense of minimizing fuel consumption. The solu- tion, when it exists, allows the vehicles to cross the intersections without the use of traffic lights, without creating congestion on the connecting road, and under the hard safety constraint of collision avoidance. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is validated through simulation considering two intersections located in downtown Boston, and it is shown that coordination of CAVs can reduce significantly both fuel consumption and travel time.

Connected and automated vehicles↗

Application of Optimal Production Control theory for Home Energy Management in a Micro Grid

We consider the optimal stochastic control problem for home energy systems with solar and energy storage devices when the demand is realized from the grid. The demand is subject to Brownian motions with both drift and variance parameters modulated by a continuous-time Markov chain that represents the regime of electricity price. We model the systems as pure stochastic differential equation models, and then we follow the completing square technique to solve the stochastic home energy management problem. The effectiveness of the efficiency of the proposed approach is validated through a simulation example. For practical situations with constraints consistent to those studied here, our results imply the proposed framework could reduce the electricity cost from short-term purchase in peak hour market.

Malikopoulos, Andreas↗

Online Optimal Control of Connected Vehicles for Efficient Traffic Flow at Merging Roads

This paper addresses the problem of coordinating online connected vehicles at merging roads to achieve a smooth traffic flow without stop-and-go driving. We present a framework and a closed-form solution that optimize the acceleration profile of each vehicle in terms of fuel economy while avoiding collision with other vehicles at the merging zone. The proposed solution is validated through simulation and it is shown that coordination of connected vehicles can reduce significantly fuel consumption and travel time at merging roads.

Autonomous Vehicles↗

Pareto Efficient Policy for Supervisory Power Management Control

n this paper we address the problem of online optimization of the supervisory power management control in parallel hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). We model HEV opera- tion as a controlled Markov chain using the long-run expected average cost per unit time criterion, and we show that the control policy yielding the Pareto optimal solution minimizes the average cost criterion online. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is validated through simulation and compared to the solution derived with dynamic programming using the average cost criterion.

Markov chain↗

A Multiobjective Optimization Framework for Online Stochastic Optimal Control in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

The increasing urgency to extract additional efficiency from hybrid propulsion systems has led to the development of advanced power management control algorithms. In this paper we address the problem of online optimization of the supervisory power management control in parallel hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). We model HEV operation as a controlled Markov chain and we show that the control policy yielding the Pareto optimal solution minimizes online the long-run expected average cost per unit time criterion. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is validated through simulation and compared to the solution derived with dynamic programming using the average cost criterion. Both solutions achieved the same cumulative fuel consumption demonstrating that the online Pareto control policy is an optimal control policy.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Centralized Stochastic Optimal Control of Complex Systems

In this paper we address the problem of online optimization of the supervisory power management control in parallel hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). We model HEV operation as a controlled Markov chain using the long-run expected average cost per unit time criterion, and we show that the control policy yielding the Pareto optimal solution minimizes the average cost criterion online. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is validated through simulation and compared to the solution derived with dynamic programming using the average cost criterion.

complex systems↗

A Multiobjective Optimization Framework for Stochastic Control of Complex Systems

This paper addresses the problem of minimizing the long-run expected average cost of a complex system consisting of subsystems that interact with each other and the environment. We treat the stochastic control problem as a multiobjective optimization problem of the one-stage expected costs of the subsystems, and we show that the control policy yielding the Pareto optimal solution is an optimal control policy that minimizes the average cost criterion for the entire system. For practical situations with constraints consistent to those we study here, our results imply that the Pareto control policy may be of value in deriving online an optimal control policy in complex systems.

Complex systems↗