Autonomous Vehicle Platoons In Urban Road Networks:A Joint Distributed Reinforcement Learning and Model Predictive Control Approach

In this paper, platoons of autonomous vehicles operating in urban road networks are considered. From a methodological point of view, the problem of interest consists of formally characterizing vehicle state trajectory tubes by means of routing decisions complying with traffic congestion criteria. To this end, a novel distributed control architecture is conceived by taking advantage of two methodologies: deep reinforcement learning and model predictive control. On one hand, the routing decisions are obtained by using a distributed reinforcement learning algorithm that exploits available traffic data at each road junction. On the other hand, a bank of model predictive controllers is in charge of computing the more adequate control action for each involved vehicle. Such tasks are here combined into a single framework:the deep reinforcement learning output(action) is translated into a set-point to be tracked by the model predictive controller;conversely, the current vehicle position, resulting from the application of the control move, is exploited by the deep reinforcement learning unit for improving its reliability. The main novelty of the proposed solution lies in its hybrid nature: on one hand it fully exploits deep reinforcement learning capabilities for decisionmaking purposes;on the other hand, time-varying hard constraints are always satisfied during the dynamical platoon evolution imposed by the computed routing decisions. To efficiently evaluate the performance of the proposed control architecture, a co-design procedure, involving the SUMO and MATLAB platforms, is implemented so that complex operating environments can be used, and the information coming from road maps(links,junctions, obstacles, semaphores, etc.) and vehicle state trajectories can be shared and exchanged. Finally by considering as operating scenario a real entire city block and a platoon of eleven vehicles described by double-integrator models, several simulations have been performed with the aim to put in light the main f eatures of the proposed approach. Moreover, it is important to underline that in different operating scenarios the proposed reinforcement learning scheme is capable of significantly reducing traffic congestion phenomena when compared with well-reputed competitors.

Effects of aggregating forests, establishing forest road networks, and mechanization on operational efficiency and costs in a mountainous region in Japan

We investigated forest road networks and forestry operations before and after mechanization on aggregated forestry operation sites. We developed equations to estimate densities of road networks with average slope angles, operational efficiency of bunching operations with road network density, and average forwarding distances with operation site areas. Subsequently, we analyzed the effects of aggregating forests, establishing forest road networks, and mechanization on operational efficiency and costs. Six ha proved to be an appropriate operation site area with minimum operation expenses. The operation site areas of the forest owners＇ cooperative in this region aggregated approximately 6 ha and the cooperative conducted forestry operations on aggregated sites. Therefore, 6 ha would be an appropriate operation site area in this region. Regarding road network density, higher-density road networks increased operational expenses due to the higher direct operational expenses of strip road establishment. Therefore, road network density should be reduced to approximately 200 m.

Joint Optimization of Latency and Energy Consumption for Mobile Edge Computing Based Proximity Detection in Road Networks

In recent years, artificial intelligence and automotive industry have developed rapidly, and autonomous driving has gradually become the focus of the industry. In road networks, the problem of proximity detection refers to detecting whether two moving objects are close to each other or not in real time. However, the battery life and computing capability of mobile devices are limited in the actual scene,which results in high latency and energy consumption. Therefore, it is a tough problem to determine the proximity relationship between mobile users with low latency and energy consumption. In this article, we aim at finding a tradeoff between latency and energy consumption. We formalize the computation offloading problem base on mobile edge computing(MEC)into a constrained multiobjective optimization problem(CMOP) and utilize NSGA-II to solve it. The simulation results demonstrate that NSGA-II can find the Pareto set, which reduces the latency and energy consumption effectively. In addition, a large number of solutions provided by the Pareto set give us more choices of the offloading decision according to the actual situation.

Automatic Matching of Multi-scale Road Networks under the Constraints of Smaller Scale Road Meshes

In this paper,we propose a new method to achieve automatic matching of multi-scale roads under the constraints of smaller scale data.The matching process is:Firstly,meshes are extracted from two different scales road data.Secondly,several basic meshes in the larger scale road network will be merged into a composite one which is matched with one mesh in the smaller scale road network,to complete the N∶1(N>1)and 1∶1 matching.Thirdly,meshes of the two different scale road data with M∶N(M>1,N>1)matching relationships will be matched.Finally,roads will be classified into two categories under the constraints of meshes:mesh boundary roads and mesh internal roads,and then matchings between the two scales meshes will be carried out within their own categories according to the matching relationships.The results show that roads of different scales will be more precisely matched using the proposed method.

Seismic damage to road networks subjected to earthquakes in Nepal,2015

The Gorkha earthquake in Nepal led to many landslides and severe damage to the transportation infrastructure. After careful comparison of the aerial photographs and satellite images before and after the earthquake, partially verified by a field study, more than 2,064 landslides and many road failures were observed. Many bridges, especially steel-truss and suspension bridges, suffered little damage from inertia loads during the earthquake, but were severely damaged due to rockfalls. Potential geological hazards hindered the delivery of supplies in mountainous areas, and road closures impeded the overall speed of rehabilitation.

Privacy Protection with Dynamic Pseudonym-Based Multiple Mix-Zones Over Road Networks

In this research we proposed a strategy for location privacy protection which addresses the issues related with existing location privacy protection techniques. Mix-Zones and pseudonyms are considered as the basic building blocks for location privacy; however, continuously changing pseudonyms process at multiple locations can enhance user privacy. It has been revealed that changing pseudonym at improper time and location may threat to user's privacy. Moreover, certain methods related to pseudonym change have been proposed to attain desirable location privacy and most of these solutions are based upon velocity, GPS position and direction of angle. We analyzed existing methods related to location privacy with mix zones, such as RPCLP, EPCS and MODP, where it has been observed that these methods are not adequate to attain desired level of location privacy and suffered from large number of pseudonym changes. By analyzing limitations of existing methods, we proposed Dynamic Pseudonym based multiple mix zone(DPMM) technique, which ensures highest level of accuracy and privacy. We simulate our data by using SUMO application and analysis results has revealed that DPMM outperformed existing pseudonym change techniques and achieved better results in terms of acquiring high privacy with small number of pseudonym change.

Development of a support system for creating disaster prevention maps focusing on road networks and hazardous elements

As a disaster prevention measure based on self-assistance and mutual assistance,disaster prevention maps are being created with citizen participation throughout Japan.The process of creating disaster prevention maps is itself a disaster prevention measure that contributes to raising awareness of disaster prevention by promoting exchange and cooperation within the region.By focusing on relations between road networks and hazardous elements,we developed a system to support disaster prevention map creation that visualizes roads at high risk during a disaster and facilitates the study of evacuation simulations.This system leads to a completed disaster prevention map in three phases.In the first phase,we use a device with GPS logging functions to collect information related to hazardous elements.In the second phase,we use Google Maps(“online map,”below)to visualize roads with high evacuation risk.In the final phase,we perform a regional evaluation through simulations of disaster-time evacuations.In experimental verifications,by conducting usability tests after creating a disaster prevention map in the target area,we evaluated the system in terms of simple operability and visibility.We found that by implementing this series of processes,even users lacking specialized knowledge regarding disaster prevention can intuitively discover evacuation routes while considering the relations between visualized road networks and hazardous elements.These results show that compared with disaster prevention maps having simple site notations using existing WebGIS systems,disaster prevention maps created by residents while inspecting the target area raise awareness of risks present in the immediate vicinity even in normal times and are an effective support system for prompt disaster prevention measures and evacuation drills.

Road Distance Computation Using Homomorphic Encryption in Road Networks

Road networks have been used in a wide range of applications to reduces the cost of transportation and improve the quality of related services.The shortest road distance computation has been considered as one of the most fundamental operations of road networks computation.To alleviate privacy concerns about location privacy leaks during road distance computation,it is desirable to have a secure and efficient road distance computation approach.In this paper,we propose two secure road distance computation approaches,which can compute road distance over encrypted data efficiently.An approximate road distance computation approach is designed by using Partially Homomorphic Encryption and road network set embedding.An exact road distance computation is built by using Somewhat Homomorphic Encryption and road network hypercube embedding.We implement our two road distance computation approaches,and evaluate them on the real cityscale road network.Evaluation results show that our approaches are accurate and efficient.

Bi-objective optimization models for mitigating traffic congestion in urban road networks

Traffic congestion in road transportation networks is a persistent problem in major metropolitan cities around the world.In this context,this paper deals with exploiting underutilized road capacities in a network to lower the congestion on overutilized links while simultaneously satisfying the system optimal flow assignment for sustainable transportation.Four congestion mitigation strategies are identified based on deviation and relative deviation of link volume from the corresponding capacity.Consequently,four biobjective mathematical programming optimal flow distribution(OFD)models are proposed.The case study results demonstrate that all the proposed models improve system performance and reduce congestion on high volume links by shifting flows to low volumeto-capacity links compared to UE and SO models.Among the models,the system optimality with minimal sum and maximum absolute relative-deviation models(SO-SAR and SO-MAR)showed superior results for different performance measures.The SO-SAR model yielded 50%and 30%fewer links at higher link utilization factors than UE and SO models,respectively.Also,it showed more than 25%improvement in path travel times compared to UE travel time for about 100 paths and resulted in the least network congestion index of1.04 compared to the other OFD and UE models.Conversely,the SO-MAR model yielded the least total distance and total system travel time,resulting in lower fuel consumption and emissions,thus contributing to sustainability.The proposed models contribute towards efficient transportation infrastructure management and will be of interest to transportation planners and traffic managers.

3D Road Network Modeling and Road Structure Recognition in Internet of Vehicles

Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is a new system that enables individual vehicles to connect with nearby vehicles,people, transportation infrastructure, and networks, thereby realizing amore intelligent and efficient transportationsystem. The movement of vehicles and the three-dimensional (3D) nature of the road network cause the topologicalstructure of IoV to have the high space and time complexity.Network modeling and structure recognition for 3Droads can benefit the description of topological changes for IoV. This paper proposes a 3Dgeneral roadmodel basedon discrete points of roads obtained from GIS. First, the constraints imposed by 3D roads on moving vehicles areanalyzed. Then the effects of road curvature radius (Ra), longitudinal slope (Slo), and length (Len) on speed andacceleration are studied. Finally, a general 3D road network model based on road section features is established.This paper also presents intersection and road section recognition methods based on the structural features ofthe 3D road network model and the road features. Real GIS data from a specific region of Beijing is adopted tocreate the simulation scenario, and the simulation results validate the general 3D road network model and therecognitionmethod. Therefore, thiswork makes contributions to the field of intelligent transportation by providinga comprehensive approach tomodeling the 3Droad network and its topological changes in achieving efficient trafficflowand improved road safety.

Resilience assessment and optimization method of city road network in the post-earthquake emergency period

The post-earthquake emergency period,which is a sensitive time segment just after an event,mainly focuses on saving life and restoring social order.To improve the seismic resilience of city road networks,a resilience evaluation method used in the post-earthquake emergency period is proposed.The road seismic damage index of a city road network can consider the influence of roads,bridges and buildings along the roads,etc.on road capacity after an earthquake.A function index for a city road network is developed,which reflects the connectivity,redundancy,traffic demand and traffic function of the network.An optimization model for improving the road repair order in the post-earthquake emergency period is also developed according to the resilience evaluation,to enable decision support for city emergency management and achieve the best seismic resilience of the city road network.The optimization model is applied to a city road network and the results illustrate the feasibility of the resilience evaluation and optimization method for a city road network in the post-earthquake emergency period.

Evolution, accessibility and dynamics of road networks in China from 1600 BC to 1900 AD

Before the emergence of modern modes of transport, the traditional road infra structure was the major historical means of carrying out nationwide socioeconomic exchange However, the history of transport infrastructure has received little attention from researchers. Given this background, the work reported here examined the longterm development of transport networks in China. The national road network was selected for study and the 3500 years from 1600 BC to 1900 AD was chosen as the study period. Indicators were designed for the maturity level of road networks and an accessibility model was developed for the paths of the shortest distance. The evolution of the road network in China since the Shang Dynasty （1600 BC） was described and its major features were summarized to reveal longterm regu larities. The maturity level of the road network and its accessibility was assessed and regions with good and poor networks were identified. The relationship between China＇s natural, social and economic systems and the road network were discussed. Our analysis shows that the road network in China has a number of longterm regularities. The continuously expanding road network follows a path of inland expansion especially towards the border areas. How ever, its coverage and accessibility are characterized by a coreperipheral configuration, which has close relationships with, not only the natural conditions, but also national defense and warfare. The centralization of national power, national land governance, postal transport, the transport of specialized cargos, and international trade are also related to the develop ment of the road network. This research draws attention to the evolving regularities of trans port networks.

Protecting personalized privacy against sensitivity homogeneity attacks over road networks in mobile services

Privacy preservation has recently received considerable attention for location-based mobile services. A lot of location cloaking approaches focus on identity and location protection, but few algorithms pay attention to prevent sensitive information disclosure using query semantics. In terms of personalized privacy requirements, all queries in a cloaking set, from some user＇s point of view, are sensitive. These users regard the privacy is breached. This attack is called as the sensitivity homogeneity attack. We show that none of the existing location cloaking approaches can effectively resolve this problem over road networks. We propose a （K, L, P）-anonymity model and a personalized privacy protection cloaking algorithm over road networks, aiming at protecting the identity, location and sensitive information for each user. The main idea of our method is first to partition users into different groups as anonymity requirements. Then, unsafe groups are adjusted by inserting relaxed conservative users considering sensitivity requirements. Finally, segments covered by each group are published to protect location information. The efficiency and effectiveness of the method are validated by a series of carefully designed experiments. The experimental results also show that the price paid for defending against sensitivity homogeneity attacks is small.

Optimal Design of Two Road Networks Based on their Properties

In this paper, we discuss some fundamental properties of two idealized typical networks, namely, grid type and radial-circular type. The discussion is based on SPCP （Shortest Path Counting Problem）, which reflects the traffic density of a road segment. Furthermore, we compare their effectiveness based on the obtained results of the above two road networks, and suggest some proposals on the design of car lanes by considering the direction of a road segment in relation to these road networks.

k-Nearest Neighbor Query Processing Algorithms for a Query Region in Road Networks

Recent development of wireless communication technologies and the popularity of smart phones .are making location-based services （LBS） popular. However, requesting queries to LBS servers with users＇ exact locations may threat the privacy of users. Therefore, there have been many researches on generating a cloaked query region for user privacy protection. Consequently, an efficient query processing algorithm for a query region is required. So, in this paper, we propose k-nearest neighbor query （k-NN） processing algorithms for a query region in road networks. To efficiently retrieve k-NN points of interest （POIs）, we make use of the Island index. We also propose a method that generates an adaptive Island index to improve the query processing performance and storage usage. Finally, we show by our performance analysis that our k-NN query processing algorithms outperform the existing k-Range Nearest Neighbor （kRNN） algorithm in terms of network expansion cost and query processing time.

Simulation and analysis of the carrying capacity for road networks using a grid-based approach

The number of vehicles that a road network can carry is limited.When the limit is exceeded,the network system is not able to function effectively.In this paper,an updated cellular automaton model for grid networks with all-way stop-controlled intersections is proposed to simulate the network level critical density and carrying capacity under different conditions,which essentially indicates the limit number of vehicles that the network can handle before going into gridlock.In the proposed model,two update rules,including lane-changing and the longitudinal location update,are adopted to describe the vehicle’s movements on road segments according to the driving condition on the road and the vehicle’s direction in the downstream intersection.The vehicle’s movements in intersection areas are prioritized based on vehicle’s position,so as to prevent collisions within the intersection area.The simulation results show that an increase in network size is able to expand the carrying capacity of a road network,whereas the expansion rate is lower than the change rate in the network size.The carrying capacity is also associated with the structure of road network.The carrying capacity is inversely proportional to the number of intersections,and proportional to the length of the road in the network.Also,optimizing the origin-destination(O-D)distribution can increase the carrying capacity of an urban road network.

On Efficient Aggregate Nearest Neighbor Query Processing in Road Networks

An aggregate nearest neighbor （ANN） query returns a point of interest （POI） that minimizes an aggregate function for multiple query points. In this paper, we propose an e？cient approach to tackle ANN queries in road networks. Our approach consists of two phases： searching phase and pruning phase. In particular, we first continuously compute the nearest neighbors （NNs） for each query point in some specific order to obtain the candidate POIs until all query points find a common POI. Second, we filter out the unqualified POIs based on the pruning strategy for a given aggregate function. The two-phase process is repeated until there remains only one candidate POI, and the remained one is returned as the final result. In addition, we discuss the partition strategies for query points and the approximate ANN query for the case where the number of query points is huge. Extensive experiments using real datasets demonstrate that our proposed approach outperforms its competitors significantly in most cases.

An improved probabilistic relaxation method for matching multi-scale road networks

Matching multi-scale road networks in the same area is the first step in merging two road networks or updating one based upon the other.The quality of the merge or update depends greatly on the matching accuracy of the two road networks.We propose an improved probabilistic relaxation method,considering both local and global optimizations for matching multi-scale of road networks.The aim is to achieve local optimization,as well as to address the identification of the M:N matching pattern by means of inserting virtual nodes to achieve global optimization effects.Then,by adding two attribute-related evaluation indicators,we developed four evaluation indicators to evaluate the matching accuracy,considering both geographic and attribute information.This paper also provides instructions on how to identify the proper buffer threshold during matching procedures.Extensive experiments were conducted to compare the proposed method with the traditional approach.The results indicate that:(1)the overall matching accuracy of each evaluation indicator exceeds 90%;(2)the overall matching accuracy increases by 6–12%after an M:N matching pattern is added,and by 4–6%following the addition of topology indicators;and(3)the proper buffer threshold is about twice the average value of the closest distance from all nodes.

Reverse Furthest Neighbors Query in Road Networks

Given a road network G = （V, E）, where V（E） denotes the set of vertices（edges） in G, a set of points of interest P and a query point q residing in G, the reverse furthest neighbors （RFNR） query in road networks fetches a set of points p ∈ P that take q as their furthest neighbor compared with all points in P ∪ {q}. This is the monochromatic RFNR （MRFNR） query. Another interesting version of RFNR query is the bichromatic reverse furthest neighbor （BRFNR） query. Given two sets of points P and Q, and a query point q ∈ Q, a BRFNR query fetches a set of points p ∈ P that take q as their furthest neighbor compared with all points in Q. This paper presents efficient algorithms for both MRFNR and BRFNR queries, which utilize landmarks and partitioning-based techniques. Experiments on real datasets confirm the efficiency and scalability of proposed algorithms.

Efficient Similarity Search Based on Semantic Trajectories in Road Networks

In recent years, a few researches focus on the similarity measure of semantic trajectories in road networks, since semantic trajectories in road networks have smaller volumes, higher qualities and can better reflect user behaviors. However, these works do not further discuss how to efficiently search similar trajectories. Thus, to implement an efficient similarity search, we design an index called SIET based on the structures of road networks. Then, we propose a novel algorithm called SSN-BF to search similar trajectories efficiently by using best-first strategy. At last, we take the experimental evaluations on real dataset and prove the efficiency of our algorithm.