Modeling the impacts of mandatory and discretionary lane-changing maneuvers

In this paper, a novel mesoscopic multilane model is proposed to enable simultaneous simulation of mandatory and discretionary lane-changing behaviors to realistically capture multilane traffic dynamics. The model considers lane specific fundamental diagrams to simulate dynamic heterogeneous lane flow distributions on expressways. Moreover, different priority levels are identified according to different lane-changing motivations and the corresponding levels of urgency. Then, an algorithm is proposed to estimate the dynamic mandatory and discretionary lane-changing demands. Finally, the lane flow propagation is defined by the reaction law of the demand–supply functions, which can be regarded as an extension of the Incremental-Transfer and/or Priority Incremental-Transfer principles. The proposed mesoscopic multilane cell transmission model is calibrated and validated on a complex weaving section of the State Route 241 freeway in Orange County, California, showing both the positive and negative impact of lane changing maneuvers, e.g., balancing effect and capacity drop, respectively. Moreover, the empirical study verifies that the model requires no additional data other than the cell transmission model does. Thus, the proposed model can be deployed as a simple simulation tool for accessing dynamic mesoscopic multilane traffic state from data available to most management centers, and also the potential application in predicting the impact of traffic incident or lane control strategy.     

Validating and improving public transport origin–destination estimation algorithm using smart card fare data

Smart card data are increasingly used for transit network planning, passengers’ behaviour analysis and network demand forecasting. Public transport origin–destination (O–D) estimation is a significant product of processing smart card data. In recent years, various O–D estimation methods using the trip-chaining approach have attracted much attention from both researchers and practitioners. However, the validity of these estimation methods has not been extensively investigated. This is mainly because these datasets usually lack data about passengers’ alighting, as passengers are often required to tap their smart cards only when boarding a public transport service. Thus, this paper has two main objectives. First, the paper reports on the implementation and validation of the existing O–D estimation method using the unique smart card dataset of the South-East Queensland public transport network which includes data on both boarding stops and alighting stops. Second, the paper improves the O–D estimation algorithm and empirically examines these improvements, relying on this unique dataset. The evaluation of the last destination assumption of the trip-chaining method shows a significant negative impact on the matching results of the differences between actual boarding/alighting times and the public transport schedules. The proposed changes to the algorithm improve the average distance between the actual and estimated alighting stops, as this distance is reduced from 806 m using the original algorithm to 530 m after applying the suggested improvements.     

Dynamic demand estimation and prediction for traffic urban networks adopting new data sources

Nowadays, new mobility information can be derived from advanced traffic surveillance systems that collect updated traffic measurements, both in fixed locations and over specific corridors or paths. Such recent technological developments point to challenging and promising opportunities that academics and practitioners have only partially explored so far.The paper looks at some of these opportunities within the Dynamic Demand Estimation problem (DDEP). At first, data heterogeneity, accounting for different sets of data providing a wide spatial coverage, has been investigated for the benefit of off-line demand estimation. In an attempt to mimic the current urban networks monitoring, examples of complex real case applications are being reported where route travel times and route choice probabilities from probe vehicles are exploited together with common link traffic measurements.Subsequently, on-line detection of non-recurrent conditions is being recorded, adopting a sequential approach based on an extension of the Kalman Filter theory called Local Ensemble Transformed Kalman Filter (LETKF).Both the off-line and the on-line investigations adopt a simulation approach capable of capturing the highly nonlinear dependence between the travel demand and the traffic measurements through the use of dynamic traffic assignment models. Consequently, the possibility of using collected traffic information is enhanced, thus overcoming most of the limitations of current DDEP approaches found in the literature.     

State estimation in roll dynamics for commercial vehicles

Accurate lateral load transfer estimation plays an important role in improving the performance of the active rollover prevention system equipped in commercial vehicles. This estimation depends on the accurate prediction of roll angles for both the sprung and the unsprung subsystems. This paper proposes a novel computational method for roll-angle estimation in commercial vehicles employing sensors which are already used in a vehicle dynamic control system without additional expensive measurement units. The estimation strategy integrates two blocks. The first block contains a sliding-mode observer which is responsible for calculating the lateral tyre forces, while in the second block, the Kalman filter estimates the roll angles of the sprung mass and those of axles in the truck. The validation is conducted through MATLAB/TruckSim co-simulation. Based on the comparison between the estimated results and the simulation results from TruckSim, it can be concluded that the proposed estimation method has a promising tracking performance with low computational cost and high convergence speed. This approach enables a low-cost solution for the rollover prevention in commercial vehicles.     

Design of tyre force excitation for tyre–road friction estimation

Knowledge of the current tyre–road friction coefficient is essential for future autonomous vehicles. The environmental conditions, and the tyre–road friction in particular, determine both the braking distance and the maximum cornering velocity and thus set the boundaries for the vehicle. Tyre–road friction is difficult to estimate during normal driving due to low levels of tyre force excitation. This problem can be solved by using active tyre force excitation. A torque is added to one or several wheels in the purpose of estimating the tyre–road friction coefficient. Active tyre force excitation provides the opportunity to design the tyre force excitation freely. This study investigates how the tyre force should be applied to minimise the error of the tyre–road friction estimate. The performance of different excitation strategies was found to be dependent on both tyre model choice and noise level. Furthermore, the advantage with using tyre models with more parameters decreased when noise was added to the force and slip ratio.     

Power network parameter estimation method based on data mining technology

The parameter values which actually change with the circumstances, weather and load level etc.produce great effect to the result of state estimation. A new parameter estimation method based on data mining technology was proposed. The clustering method was used to classify the historical data in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) database as several types. The data processing technology was impliedto treat the isolated point, missing data and yawp data in samples for classified groups. The measurement data which belong to each classification were introduced to the linear regression equation in order to gain the regression coefficient and actual parameters by the least square method. A practical system demonstrates the high correctness, reliability and strong practicability of the proposed method.     

基于层次分析法的区间估计的车站能力查定误差因子分析研究

本文归纳总结了车站能力查定计算过程中存在的多种影响因素,深入分析了其产生原因和不可避免性。然后利用层次分析法的区间估计方法计算得出各种误差因子对计算结果的影响权重大小,并对比不同误差因子的权重区间,筛选出强误差因子,剔除弱误差因子,为精确计算车站能力值提供依据。     

基于频域搜索的梳状谱信号检测方法

由于梳状谱信号多普勒容限较小,利用常规的匹配/相关检测方法进行检测时,需要较大数量的拷贝信号与计算量。针对这一问题,本文提出一种基于频域搜索的梳状谱信号检测算法。通过利用梳状谱信号频域多峰结构的特点,根据信号的先验信息计算出不同径向速度下回波信号的频点分布,对接收的信号在频域进行搜索累计的方法同时实现信号的检测与速度估计。仿真分析证明了本文算法的有效性。     

基于EMD的矢量水声器方位估计算法

对经验模态分解算法(EMD算法)进行深入研究,对其基本原理、基本性质以及存在的问题进行分析。为改善EMD算法在方位估计的精度,减少高频噪声、间断干扰的影响,本文采用Hilbert-Huang变换方法来消除模态混叠现象。实验结果表明,本文提出的基于EMD的矢量水声器方位估计算法,能够有效提高方位估计的精度。     

一种基于MUSIC改进算法的宽带水声信号DOA估计

提出一种适用于水声宽带信号的DOA估计算法。该方法首先将时域宽带信号变换到频域,然后划分子带,在每个子带上进行不同的加权得到信号的DOA估计。同时子带算法采用改进的MUSIC算法,降低了DOA高分辨力估计所需要的信噪比。计算机仿真对比了MUSIC算法和改进后算法的空域分辨力,同时也对比了不同信噪比下2种算法的性能。仿真结果表明,改进后的算法无论在适用信噪比条件还是分辨能力上均有较大提高。最后采用某型水下航行器的实航数据对算法进行验证,验证结果表明该算法可在实际应用环境中获得良好的DOA估计。