From road congestion to vehicle-control enabled artificial traffic fluids

This article provides an overview of the design of purely reactive nonlinear feedback two-dimensional Cruise Controllers (CCs) for CAVs relying on two combined principles: (a) Lane-free traffic, whereby vehicles are not bound to fixed traffic lanes; and (b) Vehicle nudging, whereby vehicles influence other vehicles in front or on the sides of them. The design of the two-dimensional CCs is based on a control Lyapunov methodology, with the considered system being subject to various state constraints, and guarantees a number of desired features, including collision avoidance and road boundary respect. Additionally, the emerging macroscopic traffic flow models are derived, and direct relations are established between selectable CC features and the resulting macroscopic traffic flow characteristics. This allows the active design of efficient traffic flow with desired properties, i.e., the construction of artificial traffic fluids.