Decentralized Merging Control of Connected and Automated Vehicles to Enhance Safety and Energy Efficiency using Control Barrier Functions

Abstract: This paper presents a decentralized Control Barrier Function (CBF) based approach for highway merging of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs). In this control algorithm, each "host" vehicle negotiates with other agents in a control zone of the highway network, and enacts its own action, to perform safe and energy-efficient merge maneuvers. It uses predictor-corrector loops within the robust CBF setting for negotiation and to reconcile disagreements that may arise. There is no explicit order of vehicles and no priority. A notable feature is absence of gridlocks due to instability of the inter-agent system. Results from Monte Carlo simulations show significant improvement in the system-wide energy efficiency and traffic flow compared to a first-in-first-out approach, as well as enhanced robustness of the proposed decentralized controller compared to its centralized counterpart.