Modeling the special intersections for enhanced digital map

A new lane-level road modeling method based on cardinal spline is proposed for the special intersections which are covered by vegetation or artificial landscape in their central regions.First,cardinal spline curves are used to fit the virtual lanes inside special intersections,and an initial road model is established using a series of control points and tension parameters.Then,the progressive optimization algorithm is proposed to determine the final road model based on the initial model.The algorithm determines reasonable control points and optimal tension parameters according to the degree of road curvature changes,so as to achieve a balance between the efficiency and reliability of the road model.Finally,the proposed intersection model is verified and evaluated through experiments.The results show that this method can effectively describe the lane-level topological relationship and geometric details of this kind of special intersection where the central area is covered by vegetation or artificial landscape,and can achieve a good balance between the efficiency and reliability of the road model.

Groove modeling and digital simulation for intersecting structures of circular tubes based on coplanarity of vectors

In order to establish the groove model for intersecting structures of circular tubes,mathematical model of the intersecting line is established by the method of analytic geometry,and parametric equations are thus determined.The dihedral angle,groove angle and actual cutting angle for any position of the intersecting line are derived as well.In order to identify groove vectors for two pipes,a new analytical method,i.e.coplanarity of vectors,is further proposed to complete the groove model.The established model is virtually verified by programming and simulation calculation in the MATLAB environment.The results show that groove vectors of intersecting structures simulated by MATLAB are consistent with the theoretical groove model,indicating that the theoretical groove model established in this paper is accurate,and further proves that the proposed coplanarity of vectors for solving groove vectors is correct and feasible.Finally,a graphical user interface(GUI)is developed by MATLAB software to independently realize functions such as model drawing,variable calculation and data output.The research outcome provides a theoretical foundation for the actual welding of circular intersecting structures,and lays an essential basis for weld bead layout and path planning.

TOA positioning algorithm of LBL system for underwater target based on PSO

For the underwater long baseline(LBL)positioning systems,the traditional distance intersection algorithm simplifies the sound speed to a constant,and calculates the underwa-ter target position parameters with a nonlinear iteration.However,due to the complex underwater environment,the sound speed changes with time and space,and then the acoustic propagation path is actually a curve,which inevitably causes some errors to the traditional distance intersection positioning algorithm.To reduce the position error caused by the uncertain underwater sound speed,a new time of arrival(TOA)intersection underwater positioning algorithm of LBL system is proposed.Firstly,combined with the vertical layered model of the underwater sound speed,an implicit positioning model of TOA intersection is constructed through the constant gradient acoustic ray tracing.And then an optimization function based on the overall TOA residual square sum is advanced to solve the position parameters for the underwater target.Moreover,the particle swarm optimization(PSO)algorithm is replaced with the tra-ditional nonlinear least square method to optimize the implicit positioning model of TOA intersection.Compared with the traditional distance intersection positioning model,the TOA intersec-tion positioning model is more suitable for the engineering practice and the optimization algorithm is more effective.Simulation results show that the proposed methods in this paper can effectively improve the positioning accuracy for the underwater target.

Statistical modeling of total crash frequency at highway intersections

Intersection-related crashes are associated with high proportion of accidents involving drivers, occupants, pedestrians, and cyclists. In general, the purpose of intersection safety analysis is to determine the impact of safety-related variables on pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, so as to facilitate the design of effective and efficient countermeasure strategies to improve safety at intersections. This study investigates the effects of traffic, environ- mental, intersection geometric and pavement-related characteristics on total crash fre- quencies at intersections. A random-parameter Poisson model was used with crash data from 357 signalized intersections in Chicago from 2004 to 2010. The results indicate that out of the identified factors, evening peak period traffic volume, pavement condition, and unlighted intersections have the greatest effects on crash frequencies. Overall, the results seek to suggest that, in order to improve effective highway-related safety countermeasures at intersections, significant attention must be focused on ensuring that pavements are adequately maintained and intersections should be well lighted. It needs to be mentioned that, projects could be implemented at and around the study intersections during the study period （7 years）, which could affect the crash frequency over the time. This is an important variable which could be a part of the future studies to investigate the impacts of safety related works at intersections and their marginal effects on crash frequency at signalized intersections.

Analysis of dynamic features in intersecting pedestrian flows

This paper focuses on the simulation analysis of stripe formation and dynamic features of intersecting pedestrian flows.The intersecting flows consist of two streams of pedestrians and each pedestrian stream has a desired walking direction.The model adopted in the simulations is the social force model, which can reproduce the self-organization phenomena successfully. Three scenarios of different cross angles are established. The simulations confirm the empirical observations that there is a stripe formation when two streams of pedestrians intersect and the direction of the stripes is perpendicular to the sum of the directional vectors of the two streams. It can be concluded from the numerical simulation results that smaller cross angle results in higher mean speed and lower level of speed fluctuation. Moreover, the detailed pictures of pedestrians＇ moving behavior at intersections are given as well.

EMPIRICAL VERIFICATION OF ANISOTROPIC HYDRODYNAMIC TRAFFIC MODEL IN TRAFFIC ANALYSIS AT INTERSECTIONS IN URBAN AREA

In this article, the traffic hydrodynamic model considering the driver＇s reaction time was applied to the traffic analysis at the intersections on real roads. In the numerical simulation with the model, the pinch effect of the right-turning vehicles flow was found, which mainly leads to traffic jamming on the straight lane. All of the results in accordance with the empirical data confirm the applicability of this model.