U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| Project Information | ||
| Project ID: | FHWA-PROJ-14-0027 | |
| Project Name: | New Approaches for Testing Connected Highway and Vehicle Systems | |
| Project Status: | Active | |
| Start Date: | January 2, 2014 | |
| End Date: | December 30, 2016 | |
| Contact Information | ||
| Last Name: | Huang | |
| First Name: | Peter | |
| Telephone: | 202-493-3484 | |
| E-mail: | peter.huang@dot.gov | |
| Office: | Office of Operations Research and Development | |
| Team: | Trans Ops Concepts and Analysis Team [HRDO-20] | |
| Program: | Exploratory Advanced Research | |
| Laboratory: | Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory | |
| Project detail | ||
| Project Description: | Connected vehicles offer the potential to transform the way that mobility can be managed in future transportation systems. Cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) is one example of the near-term applications that have the potential to address this vision. Before such applications can be approved and deployed in the field, however, they need to be vetted and thoroughly tested using an evaluation environment that can replicate actual deployment conditions as closely as possible. FHWA needs a platform to test, validate, and assess the potential benefits of deploying these different applications in a safe environment under a variety of operating conditions, including: Different levels of market penetration of connected vehicles. Different physical operating environments (e.g., communication characteristics, network topology, and GPS reception quality). Different hardware infrastructure/roadside equipment components. The research team proposes to develop an integrated platform that can be used to develop, test, and validate connected vehicle concepts and technologies in a realistic evaluation environment that replicates real-world conditions. The goal is to design and implement a comprehensive evaluation platform that integrates a multimodal microscopic traffic simulation model (VISSIM) into a hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) platform and an advanced wireless communication simulation model that would allow FHWA to install and test different vehicle- and infrastructure-based connected vehicles applications on real technologies as they might be deployed in an operational setting. As part of this project, the researchers plan to construct an HITL simulation platform that contains the following four environments: Traffic Simulation Environment (TSE). Dedicated Short-Range Communications Hardware Testing Environment (HTE). Communication Simulation Environment (CSE). Connected Vehicles Applications Testing Environment (ATE). | |
| Goals: |
(1) Expanding beyond traditional hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation: to date, traditional HITL simulation-based evaluation platforms attempt to integrate only two connected testing environment componentsa traffic simulation test environment and a vehicle-based application logic. The researchers' proposed test platform will expand Federal Highway Administration's (FHWAs) testing capabilities by adding to this test two other platforms: a communication simulation environment, whereby the effects of different communication issues and technologies can be examined, and a hardware testing environment, where different infrastructure-based technologies can be examined in a plug-n-play setting.
(2) Highly flexible and modularly integrated system: the proposed platform is also the first of its kind to attempt to build a modular platform where multiple applications from different vendors and developers can be tested directly. (3) Advanced HITL with traffic and communication simulation: the proposed evaluation platform is the first time that an advanced communication simulation model has been integrated into a traffic-oriented HITL simulation environment. This simulation model will allow FHWA to examine how different communications environments and topologies might impact vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and video-to-infrastructure (V2I) data exchange. The approach also permits FHWA and applications developers to assess the impacts of real-world communication issues on the performance of vehicle- and infrastructure-based applications.
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| Product Type: | Hardware Research report Software Training materials | |
| Test Methodology: | The researchers propose to select up to two types of connected vehicle applications to be demonstrated using the developed systemideally, one vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and one vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I). The proof-of-concept testing will involve the development of a VISSIM test bed, connected vehicle application logic, and specified sets of performance measures. For V2V applications (e.g., CACC), the connected vehicle applications will be software-based, with the primary focus on how the system can affect vehicle control and driver behaviors such that it can provide realistic evaluation of operational and safety (surrogate) performance. For V2I applications (e.g., ISIG), the applications will communicate with the control devices (e.g. signal controller) via NTCIP protocols. Depending on the algorithms to be evaluated (e.g., intelligent dilemma zone protection, smart lane-based detection), the emphasis will be less on the vehicle control/driver behaviors and more on the overall operational and safety performance of the facilities of interest. | |
| Expected Benefits: | To elevate testing of connected highway and vehicle systems to an entirely new level in order to evaluate connected vehicles on a large scale, assess implications for large simulations, take advantage of the state-of-the-art tools and concepts in hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing, and employ state-of-the-art wireless communication simulation tools and up-to-date dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) standards knowledge to validate large-scale experiments. | |
| Deliverables: | Name: Final report and application testing environment. Product Type(s): Research report, Software, Training materials, Hardware Description: The traffic simulation and the application testing environments will include four software-based interfaces: a) Basic Safety Message interface, b) Map and Topology interface, c) Vehicle Control and Driver Behavior interface, and d) ITS Control Device interface | |
| FHWA Topics: | Research/Technologies--Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) | |
| TRT Terms: | Vehicle to Vehicle Communications Dedicated Short Range Communications Vehicle to Infrastructure Communications Test Beds Hardware in the Loop Simulation Research |
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| FHWA Disciplines: | Safety |
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| Subject Areas: | Data and Information Technology Research |
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