Methods And Software For Managing Vehicle Priority In A Self-Organizing Traffic Control System

摘要

Methods and software for managing vehicle priority proximate to a potential travel-priority conflict zone, such as a roadway intersection, where travel conflicts, such as crossing traffic, can arise. Coordination involves forming an ad-hoc network in a region containing the conflict zone using, for example, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and developing a dynamic traffic control plan based on information about vehicles approaching the conflict zone. Instructions based on the dynamic traffic control plan are communicated to devices aboard vehicles in the ad-hoc network, which display one or more virtual traffic signals to the operators of the vehicles and/or control the vehicles (for example, in autonomous vehicles) in accordance with the dynamic traffic control plan, which may account for a priority level associated with one or more of the vehicles.

主权项

1. A method of managing vehicle priority proximate to a potential travel-priority conflict zone, the method being executed in a dynamic traffic control system and comprising:
communicating with a first component of the dynamic traffic control system located on-board a vehicle proximate to the potential travel-priority conflict zone so as to establish a dynamic traffic control plan for avoiding a travel-priority conflict in the potential travel-priority conflict zone; coordinating with the first component of the dynamic traffic control system via said communicating to elect a dynamic traffic controller as a temporary coordinator vehicle responsible for temporarily coordinating the dynamic traffic control plan; receiving a priority-request message from a priority vehicle; and transmitting a priority-granted message to the priority vehicle.