Date & Time: 8:30 Am on April 22, 2016

Location: The Second Floor Conference Room in the School of Information Engineering,

Title:Next Generation Traffic Control with Connected and Automated Vehicles

Seminar Speaker: Professor Henry Liu, University of Michigan USA

Abstract: Traditionally traffic signal systems are designed in such a way that different time slots are allocated to conflicting traffic streams in order to ensure vehicle safety. In the future, such design constraints may be relaxed with connected and automated vehicle (CAV) streams because crash avoidance can be achieved through distributed control of vehicle trajectories, therefore traditional traffic signals may no longer be needed. The duration of the transitional period from the state-of-the-practice with very low percentage of CAVs to the future “signal-free” state, however, is uncertain. But it is important for both traffic management agencies and traffic control industry to understand what might be happening during the transitional process and how we can better prepare and facilitate the transition. In this talk, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges for traffic control with varying percentage of connected and automated vehicles. In particular, we will present our findings using the massive data set collected from the Safety Pilot Model Deployment project and Ann Arbor Connected Vehicle Test Environment, both supported by USDOT.

Introduction to Speaker: Dr. Henry Liu is currently a Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is also a Research Professor at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). Prior joining the University of Michigan, Dr. Liu was an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2000 and his Bachelor degree in Automotive Engineering from Tsinghua University (China) in 1993. Dr. Liu’s research focuses on traffic network monitoring, modeling, and control, which includes traffic flow modeling and simulation, traffic signal operations, network traffic assignment, and mobility applications with connected and automated vehicles. Dr. Liu is the managing editor of Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems and an associate editor of Transportation Research Part C. He is also on the editorial board of Transportation Research Part B, Network and Spatial Economics, Transportmetrica Part B, and IET Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems.