Intelligent Transportation Systems

Decentralized Vehicle Coordination: The Berkeley DeepDrive Drone Dataset

Wu, Fangyu
Wang, Dequan
Hwang, Minjune
Hao, Chenhui
Lu, Jiawei
Alexandre Bayen
2022

Decentralized multiagent planning has been an important field of research in robotics. An interesting and impactful application in the field is decentralized vehicle coordination in understructured road environments. For example, in an intersection, it is useful yet difficult to deconflict multiple vehicles of intersecting paths in absence of a central coordinator. We learn from common sense that, for a vehicle to navigate through such understructured environments, the driver must understand and conform to the implicit "social etiquette" observed by nearby drivers. To study this implicit...

The Surprising Effectiveness of PPO in Cooperative Multi-Agent Games

Yu, Chao
Velu, Akash
Vinitsky, Eugene
Gao, Jiaxuan
Alexandre Bayen
2022

Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is a ubiquitous on-policy reinforcement learning algorithm but is significantly less utilized than off-policy learning algorithms in multi-agent settings. This is often due to the belief that PPO is significantly less sample efficient than off-policy methods in multi-agent systems. In this work, we carefully study the performance of PPO in cooperative multi-agent settings. We show that PPO-based multi-agent algorithms achieve surprisingly strong performance in four popular multi-agent testbeds: the particle-world environments, the StarCraft multi-...

Unified Automatic Control of Vehicular Systems with Reinforcement Learning

Yan, Zhongxia
Kreidieh, Abdul Rahman
Vinitsky, Eugene
Alexandre Bayen
2023

Emerging vehicular systems with increasing proportions of automated components present opportunities for optimal control to mitigate congestion and increase efficiency. There has been a recent interest in applying deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to these nonlinear dynamical systems for the automatic design of effective control strategies. Despite conceptual advantages of DRL being model-free, studies typically nonetheless rely on training setups that are painstakingly specialized to specific vehicular systems. This is a key challenge to efficient analysis of diverse vehicular and...

Parameter Estimation for Decoding Sensor Signals

Nice, Matthew
Bunting, Matthew
Zachár, Gergely
Bhadani, Rahul
Alexandre Bayen
2023

This paper introduces a parameter estimation approach for decoding digital sensor signals in a cyber-physical system. For unknown or not fully characterized digital sensor data, it can be difficult to decipher a desired signal from background or noise. In a cyber-physical system with networked sensors, we can leverage knowledge of the physical system to inform the decoding of the digital signals. This work in progress is a case study on deciphering commercial vehicle on-board sensor networks that communicate through the Controller Area Network (CAN). By understanding the stock vehicle...

Approaches for Synthesis and Deployment of Controller Models on Automated Vehicles for Car-Following in Mixed Autonomy

Bhadani, Rahul
Bunting, Matthew
Nice, Matthew
Alexandre Bayen
2023

This paper describes the software design patterns and vehicle interfaces that were employed to transition vehicle controllers from simulation environments to open-road field experiments. The approach relies on a life cycle that utilizes model-based design and code generation, along with agile software development, and both software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing, with additional safety margins. Autonomous designs should consider the dynamics of mixed autonomy in traffic to safely operate among humans. The software that provides a vehicle’s behavior intelligence is often developed...

Public–Private Partnerships in Fostering Outer Space Innovations

Rausser, Gordon
Choi, Elliot
Alexandre Bayen
2023

As public and private institutions recognize the role of space exploration as a catalyst for economic growth, various areas of innovation are expected to emerge as drivers of the space economy. These include space transportation, in-space manufacturing, bioproduction, in-space agriculture, nuclear launch, and propulsion systems, as well as satellite services and their maintenance. However, the current nature of space as an open-access resource and global commons presents a systemic risk for exuberant competition for space goods and services, which may result in a “tragedy of the commons”...

Car-Following Models: A Multidisciplinary Review

Zhang, Tianya Terry
Jin, Peter J.
McQuade, Sean T.
Alexandre Bayen
Piccoli, Benedetto
2024

Car-following (CF) algorithms are crucial components of traffic simulations and have been integrated into many production vehicles equipped with Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS). Insights from the model of car-following behavior help researchers to understand the causes of various macro phenomena that arise from interactions between pairs of vehicles. Car-following Models encompass multiple disciplines, including traffic engineering, physics, dynamic system control, cognitive science, machine learning, deep learning, and reinforcement learning. This paper presents an extensive...

Multi-Objective Transportation System Optimization Using Agent-Based Simulation—A Study of Cordon- and Mileage-Based Congestion Pricing

Lazarus, Jessica
Schwinn, Makena
Toulet. Leo
Yu, Zangnan
Chen, Anyi
Alexandre Bayen
2024

Congestion pricing policies are increasingly being considered to aid in congestion management and transportation funding in urban areas. This article presents a case study of the optimization of congestion pricing policy design using the Berkeley Integrated System for Transportation Optimization (BISTRO), an open-sourced transportation planning and decision support system (DSS) that uses an agent-based simulation (ABS) and optimization framework to evaluate transportation system interventions. The study exemplifies how the granularity offered by activity-based travel demand models and ABS...

CIRCLES: Congestion Impacts Reduction via CAV-in-the-Loop Lagrangian Energy Smoothing

Alexandre Bayen
Lee, Jonathan W.
Piccoli, Benedetto
Seibold, Benjamin
Sprinkle, Jonathan M.
Work, Daniel B.
2024

The energy efficiency of today’s vehicular mobility relies on the un-integrated combination of i) control via static assets (traffic lights, metering, variable speed limits, etc.); and ii) onboard vehicle automation (adaptive cruise control (ACC), ecodriving, etc.). These two families of control were not co-designed and are not engineered to work in coordination. Recent studies have shown i) limitations of controls, and even ii) negative impacts of ACC. This project focused on the technology development, implementation and prototyping, and validation of Mobile Traffic Control (MTC). MTC...

Deep Learning of First-Order Nonlinear Hyperbolic Conservation Law Solvers

Morand, Victor
Müller, Nils
Weightman, Ryan J.
Piccoli, Benedetto
Keimer, Alexander
Alexandre Bayen
2024

In this contribution, we study the numerical approximation of scalar conservation laws by computational optimization of the numerical flux function in a first-order finite volume method. The cell-averaging inherent to finite volume schemes presents a challenge in the design of such numerical flux functions toward achieving high solution accuracy. Dense neural networks, as well as (piecewise) polynomials, serve as function classes for the numerical flux. Using a parametrization of such a function class, we optimize the numerical flux with respect to its solution accuracy on a set of Riemann...