Assessing Roadway Infrastructure for Future Connected and Automated Vehicle Deployment in California

Research Team: Guoyuan Wu (lead), Matthew Barth and Peng Hao

UC Campus(es): UC Riverside

Problem Statement: With the emergence of innovative mobility services and technologies such as Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) and transportation electrification, it has become more challenging for public agencies to plan and prioritize the addition of new infrastructure. Some typical questions for urban roadway infrastructure may include: 1) what infrastructure upgrades and improvements, from both hardware and software perspectives, are needed to support CAV deployment? 2) What benefits can be gained through the investment? And 3) what communication technology should be used for connected vehicles, digital short-range communications or cellular-based communications?

Project Description: The City of Riverside’s Innovation Corridor is an established CAV testbed equipped with dedicated short-range communications. The City is planning to upgrade the infrastructure connectivity/communication capabilities of the testbed to enable the broadcasting of Signal Phase and Timing and Geographic Intersection Description or MAP messages via cellular network communications; and to enable the broadcasting of the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM) message for enabling lane-level vehicle localization. Researchers will coordinate with the City of Riverside to perform comparative field operational testing and evaluate the potential gains from the City’s infrastructure upgrade. Researchers will examine the merits and issues of different communication technologies for CAV applications, and quantify the changes in positioning accuracy of CAVs along the signalized arterial, and the induced effects of the CAV applications on the system performance.

Status: In Progress

Budget: $89,920