The massive deployment of autonomous vehicles on public roadway systems is now on the horizon, and will undoubtedly revolutionize the transportation ecosystem in the near future. Though autonomous vehicles hold much promise, major hurdles, such as safety and efficiency, must be first overcome. For example, if an autonomous vehicle runs into a heavy storm, the functioning of the GPS system or the sensing systems might be degraded. Therefore, the vehicle must incorporate substantial situational awareness by taking advantage of real-time data from the transportation infrastructure or other vehicles. This award supports fundamental research on large-scale fleet management/coordination in extreme/complex urban driving scenarios. In addition, an advanced wireless infrastructure is initiated for next-generation vehicular communications with extremely low-latency requirements and severe data demand. The gigabit fiber optic networks available in Chattanooga, TN will serve as a backbone for such an infrastructure. Connected autonomous vehicles together with the gigabit wireless/wired connections can change urban dynamics and may eventually lead to Smart & Connected Communities. The award can also foster workforce development, engineering education, and multi-disciplinary research.
The objective of this proposal is to investigate fleet management/coordination of large-scale connected autonomous vehicles, fully explore unprecedented opportunities brought by such vehicles, and address the corresponding challenges. An advanced wireless infrastructure, which integrates Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) with urban ultra-dense small cells, will be explored together with prescriptive analytics, dynamic spectrum access for millimeter wave communications, and innovative computing paradigms to substantially improve broadband connectivity for connected autonomous vehicles in terms of latency, throughput, and reliability. Real-time fleet management will be enabled by broadband multimedia streaming and sensor data sharing. Based on advanced wireless communications, the research team will study cooperative sensing and mobility of connected autonomous vehicles in extreme/complex urban driving scenarios, which fills a gap in the existing research with a focus only on a single autonomous vehicle or a small number of connected vehicles under normal driving conditions. Finally, pilot studies will be performed and novel application prototypes will be demonstrated in both Atlanta and Chattanooga with support from government and industry partners.
