An optimal variable speed limits system to ameliorate traffic safety risk

Active Traffic Management (ATM) systems have been emerging in recent years in the US and Europe. They provide control strategies to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion on freeways. This study investigates the feasibility of utilizing a Variable Speed Limits (VSL) system, one key part of ATM, to improve traffic safety on freeways. A proactive traffic safety improvement VSL control algorithm is proposed. First, an extension of the METANET (METANET: A macroscopic simulation program for motorway networks) traffic flow model is employed to analyze VSL’s impact on traffic flow. Then, a real-time crash risk evaluation model is estimated for the purpose of quantifying crash risk. Finally, optimal VSL control strategies are achieved by employing an optimization technique to minimize the total crash risk along the VSL implementation corridor. Constraints are setup to limit the increase of average travel time and the differences of the posted speed limits temporarily and spatially. This novel VSL control algorithm can proactively reduce crash risk and therefore improve traffic safety. The proposed VSL control algorithm is implemented and tested for a mountainous freeway bottleneck area through the micro-simulation software VISSIM. Safety impacts of the VSL system are quantified as crash risk improvements and speed homogeneity improvements. Moreover, three different driver compliance levels are modeled in VISSIM to monitor the sensitivity of VSL effects on driver compliance. Conclusions demonstrated that the proposed VSL system could improve traffic safety by decreasing crash risk and enhancing speed homogeneity under both the high and moderate compliance levels; while the VSL system fails to significantly enhance traffic safety under the low compliance scenario. Finally, future implementation suggestions of the VSL control strategies and related research topics are also discussed.     

Association of reduced visibility with crash outcomes

Most of the information necessary for driving a vehicle is regarded as visual information. In spite of its importance, visibility conditions at the time of a crash are often not documented at a high level of detail. Past studies have not examined the quantified values of visibility and its association with crashes. The current study merged data collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with 2010–2012 Florida crash data. From the thousands of logged weather events compiled by the NOAA, the researchers isolated periods of normal visibility and comparable periods of reduced visibility in a matched-pairs study. The NOAA data provided real visibility score based on the spatiotemporal data of the crashes. Additionally, the crash data, obtained from Roadway Information Database (RID), contains several geometric and traffic variables that allow for effects of factors and visibility. The study aims to associate crash occurrence under different levels of visibility with factors included in the crash database by developing ordinal logistic regression. The intent is to observe how different visibility conditions contribute to a crash occurrence. The findings indicate that the likelihood of a crash increase during periods of low visibility, despite the tendency for less traffic and for lower speeds to prevail during these times. The findings of this study will add valuable knowledge to the realm of the impact of visibility in the way of using and designing appropriate countermeasures.     

Modeling a rail transit alignment considering different objectives

An optimization model for station locations for an on-ground rail transit line is developed using different objective functions of demand and cost as both influence the planning of a rail transit alignment. A microscopic analysis is performed to develop a rail transit alignment in a given corridor considering a many-to-one travel demand pattern. A variable demand case is considered as it replicates a realistic scenario for planning a rail transit line. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) based on a Geographical Information System (GIS) database is developed to optimize the station locations for a rail transit alignment. The first objective is to minimize the total system cost per person, which is a function of user cost, operator cost, and location cost. The second objective is to maximize the ridership or the service coverage of the rail transit alignment. The user cost per person is minimized separately as the third objective because the user cost is one of the most important decision-making factors for planning a transit system from the users’ perspective. A transit planner can make an informed decision between various alternatives based on the results obtained using different objective functions. The model is applied in a case study in the Washington, DC area. The optimal locations and sequence of stations obtained using the three objective functions are presented and a comparative study between the results obtained is shown in the paper. In future works we will develop a combinatorial optimization problem using the aforementioned objectives for the rail transit alignment planning and design problem.     

永磁同步电机调速系统新型滑模变结构控制策略

为解决在永磁同步电机矢量控制系统转速环环节应用传统PI控制时抗干扰能力和控制精度不足的问题,在传统滑模指数趋近律基础上进行改进,将滑模面作为自变量,引入双曲正切函数设计了一种新型变边界层饱和函数代替传统的符号函数,在提高系统响应性的同时削弱了抖振.针对系统参数和负载转矩变化引起的扰动会使系统再次产生抖振的问题,引入双曲...     

车辆半主动悬架神经网络自适应控制的研究

针对变刚度半主动悬架这种时变的、非线性复杂系统,提出将神经网络自适应控制策略用于该悬架的控制,研究中主要用车身垂直加速度作为主要控制目标,以提高车辆行驶的平顺性,同时在仿真控制研究中兼顾悬架动挠度和车轮动载荷的变化,以提高车辆行驶安全性和操纵稳定性,通过仿真计算和结果分析验证了其可行性和有效性。     

高速公路可变限速系统的社会经济影响评价

运用计算机对高速公路典型路段可变限速系统进行模拟,模拟结果表明在交通量等于或大于2800veh h出现明显的效益。根据行程时间和实际服务流量确定不同交通量情况下可变限速的最佳值,并基于行程时间的节省测度出各交通量条件下实施可变限速货币化的增量效益,进行了成本效益分析。采用DEA方法进行多目标综合评价,评价结果显示,在DEA的各方案中3200、3400、3600、3800veh h所对应的DMU是DEA有效的。本文还证明了DEA对ITS项目评价是很有适用价值的,它能够描述用货币单位难以测度,但可用某种定量指标表述的重要影响。     

智能车辆转向变结构控制方法的研究

从车辆的转向动力学和预瞄运动学特性出发，结合转向系统的系统辨识，建立了车辆转向系统的线性模型。运用变结构滑模控制理论和多模型切换，使车辆转向控制具有良好的跟踪性能和鲁棒性。     

汽车变截面板簧轧机伺服控制系统分析及应用

分析了近年研制的ＢＫＤ系列程控汽车变截面板簧轧机的伺服系统，该系统与一般轧钢机的电液伺服系统不同，其特点是行程大，要求反应快及液压流量大，结合变截面轧机实际运行情况进行分析，汽车变截面板簧轧机的特点是在轧制过程中能使轧件的断面按照板簧设计曲线要求变化。     

四轮转向汽车自适应模型跟踪控制研究

使用单点预瞄驾驶员模型，针对确定性汽车模型探讨了４ＷＳ汽车在单移线行驶过程中后轮的最优转向控制规律。通过引入状态反馈，改善了整车的转向特性，将实际汽车的前后轮胎侧刚度及外界干扰视为有界的不确定性参数，采用自适应模型跟踪变结构控制方法，使得不确定的实际汽车模型能够很好地跟踪确定的最优理论模型，仿真结果表明该方法的可行性，控制系统能够有效地克服参数摄动及外界干扰对系统稳定性的影响。     

变排量压缩机控制阀实验研究与分析

变排量压缩机与热力膨胀阀的配合问题是目前汽车空调系统研究的一个难题。为解决这一问题。本文对变排量压缩机中的核心部件——控制阀进行了大量的实验研究和分析，包括其工作原理和工作范围，并对其在一定范围内可能引起压缩机振荡的原因进行了分析。