US Ignite: Collaborative Research: Focus Area 1: Fleet Management of Large-Scale Connected and Autonomous Vehicles in Urban Settings

自动驾驶汽车在公共道路系统上的大规模部署现在已经指日可待，这无疑将在不久的将来彻底改变交通生态系统。尽管自动驾驶汽车前景光明，但首先必须克服安全和效率等主要障碍。例如，如果自动驾驶车辆遇到暴风雨，GPS系统或传感系统的功能可能会降级。因此，车辆必须通过利用交通基础设施或其他车辆的实时数据来实现实质性的态势感知。该奖项支持在极端/复杂的城市驾驶场景中进行大规模车队管理/协调的基础研究。此外，还启动了先进的无线基础设施，以满足具有极低延迟要求和严格数据需求的下一代车载通信。田纳西州查塔努加的千兆位光纤网络将作为这种基础设施的主干。联网的自动驾驶汽车和千兆位的无线/有线连接可以改变城市动态，并最终可能导致智能互联社区。该奖项还可以促进劳动力发展、工程教育和多学科研究。这项建议的目标是调查大型联网自动驾驶汽车的车队管理/协调，充分探索此类车辆带来的前所未有的机遇，并应对相应的挑战。将探索将专用短程通信(DSRC)与城市超密集小蜂窝相结合的先进无线基础设施，以及规范分析、毫米波通信的动态频谱接入和创新计算范例，以在延迟、吞吐量和可靠性方面大幅改善联网自动驾驶车辆的宽带连接。通过宽带多媒体流和传感器数据共享，将实现实时车队管理。基于先进的无线通信，研究团队将研究极端/复杂城市驾驶场景下联网自动驾驶车辆的合作传感和机动性，填补了现有研究的空白，只关注一辆自动驾驶汽车或正常驾驶条件下的少量联网车辆。最后，将进行试点研究，并在政府和行业合作伙伴的支持下，在亚特兰大和查塔努加演示新型应用原型。

The massive deployment of autonomous vehicles on public roadway systems is now on the horizon, and will undoubtedly revolutionize the transportation ecosystem in the near future. Though autonomous vehicles hold much promise, major hurdles, such as safety and efficiency, must be first overcome. For example, if an autonomous vehicle runs into a heavy storm, the functioning of the GPS system or the sensing systems might be degraded. Therefore, the vehicle must incorporate substantial situational awareness by taking advantage of real-time data from the transportation infrastructure or other vehicles. This award supports fundamental research on large-scale fleet management/coordination in extreme/complex urban driving scenarios. In addition, an advanced wireless infrastructure is initiated for next-generation vehicular communications with extremely low-latency requirements and severe data demand. The gigabit fiber optic networks available in Chattanooga, TN will serve as a backbone for such an infrastructure. Connected autonomous vehicles together with the gigabit wireless/wired connections can change urban dynamics and may eventually lead to Smart & Connected Communities. The award can also foster workforce development, engineering education, and multi-disciplinary research.The objective of this proposal is to investigate fleet management/coordination of large-scale connected autonomous vehicles, fully explore unprecedented opportunities brought by such vehicles, and address the corresponding challenges. An advanced wireless infrastructure, which integrates Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) with urban ultra-dense small cells, will be explored together with prescriptive analytics, dynamic spectrum access for millimeter wave communications, and innovative computing paradigms to substantially improve broadband connectivity for connected autonomous vehicles in terms of latency, throughput, and reliability. Real-time fleet management will be enabled by broadband multimedia streaming and sensor data sharing. Based on advanced wireless communications, the research team will study cooperative sensing and mobility of connected autonomous vehicles in extreme/complex urban driving scenarios, which fills a gap in the existing research with a focus only on a single autonomous vehicle or a small number of connected vehicles under normal driving conditions. Finally, pilot studies will be performed and novel application prototypes will be demonstrated in both Atlanta and Chattanooga with support from government and industry partners.