Coordination of Cooperative Autonomous Vehicles: Toward safer and more efficient road transportation

Abstract

While intelligent transportation systems come in many shapes and sizes, arguably the most transformational realization will be the autonomous vehicle. As such vehicles become commercially available in the coming years, first on dedicated roads and under specific conditions, and later on all public roads at all times, a phase transition will occur. Once a sufficient number of autonomous vehicles is deployed, the opportunity for explicit coordination appears. This article treats this challenging network control problem, which lies at the intersection of control theory, signal processing, and wireless communication. We provide an overview of the state of the art, while at the same time highlighting key research directions for the coming decades.