AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE (AV) INTELLIGENT CONTROL SYSTEM (ICS) WITH DRIVING TASK DISTRIBUTION

1 . A transportation management system that provides full vehicle operations and control for connected and automated vehicle and highway systems by sending individual vehicles with detailed and time-sensitive control instructions for vehicle following, lane changing, route guidance, and related information, comprising:

a) A hierarchy of traffic control centers/units (TCCs/TCUs), that process information and give traffic operations instructions, wherein said TCCs and TCUs are automatic or semi-automated computational modules that focus on data gathering, information processing, network optimization, and traffic control;

b) A network of Road Side Units (RSUs), that receive data flow from connected vehicles, detect traffic conditions, and send targeted instructions to vehicles, wherein said RSU network focuses on data sensing, data processing, control signal delivery, and information distribution, and said point or segment TCU can be combined or integrated with a RSU;

c) A vehicle sub-system, comprising a mixed traffic flow of vehicles at different levels of connectivity and automation; and

d) Communication systems that provide wired and wireless communication services to all the entities in the systems.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to be operational on a portion of the available lane(s), or all the lanes of a highway.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein information is customized for each individual vehicle served by the system; said information includes weather, pavement conditions, and estimated travel time; and said information includes vehicle control instructions selected from the group consisting of speed, spacing, lane designation, and routing.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein information is sent from a upper level TCC/TCU to a lower level TCC/TCUs, and include one or more of:

a) a desirable speed,

b) a desirable spacing of vehicles,

c) a desirable traffic volume,

d) a desirable traffic split at access points, and

e) traffic signal timing parameters.

5 . The system of claim 1 wherein said system employs hardware comprising one or more of:

a) a power supply,

b) traffic sensors,

c) wired and wireless communication modules, and

d) a data storage device and database.

6 . The system of claim 1 , configured for use with a sensor selected from the group consisting of:

a) a microwave system;

b) an inductive loop system;

c) an inferred system;

d) a video camera system; and

e) a laser system.

7 . The system of claim 1 , comprising a hierarchy of Traffic Control Centers/Units (TCCs/TCUs) comprising one or more of:

a) Macroscopic TCCs, that process information from regional TCCs and provide control targets to regional TCCs;

b) Regional TCCs, that process information from corridor TCCs and provide control targets to corridor TCCs;

c) Corridor TCCs, that process information from Macroscopic and segment TCUs and provide control targets to segment TCUs;

d) Segment TCUs, that process information from corridor/point TOCs and provide control targets to point TCUs; and

e) Point TCUs, that process information from the segment TCU and RSUs and provide vehicle-based control instructions to RSU.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein said Macroscopic TCC:

a) provides control target to Regional TCCs;

b) collects related data from regional TCCs;

c) archives historical data in a data center, to support information processing and a Strategy Optimizer;

d) provides an automatic or semi-automated computational center that focuses on data gathering, information processing, network optimization, and traffic control signals; and

e) controls multiple regional TCCs in a large scale area and communicates with regional TCCs using high volume capacity and low latency communication media, such as optical fiber.

9 . The system of claim 7 , wherein said Regional TCC:

a) provides control target to corridor TCCs;

b) collects related data from corridor TCCs;

c) archives historical data in a data center, to support the information processing and a Strategy Optimizer;

d) provides an automatic or semi-automated computational center that focuses on data gathering, information processing, network optimization, and traffic control signals for a region such as a city; and

e) controls multiple Corridor TCCs within its coverage, communicates with corridor TCCs and the upper level macroscopic TCC using high volume capacity and low latency communication media, such as optical fiber.

10 . The system of claim 7 , wherein said Corridor TCC:

a) provides control target to segment TCUs;

b) collects related data from segment TCUs;

c) provides optimizer and processor modules to process information and provide control targets;

d) provides an automatic or semi-automated computational center that focuses on data gathering, information processing, network optimization, and traffic control signals for a long roadway corridor, such as a 10-mile long freeway stretch plus local road in the vicinity; and

e) contains a calculation server, a data warehouse, and data transfer units, with image computing ability calculating the data collected from road controllers, and controls Segment TCCs within its coverage, wherein a traffic control algorithm of TCC is used to control Point TCCs (e.g. adaptive predictive traffic control algorithm), a Corridor TCC communicates with segment TCUs and its upper Regional TCC using high volume capacity and low latency communication media, such as optical fiber, and said corridor TCC covers 5-20 miles.

11 . The system of claim 7 , wherein said Segment TCU:

a) provides control target to point TCUs;

b) collects related data from point TCUs;

c) provides optimizer and processor modules to process information and provide control targets;

d) provides a smaller traffic control unit covering a small roadway area, and covers a road segment about 1 to 2 miles; and

e) contains LAN data switching system (e.g. Cisco Nexus 7000) and an engineer server (e.g. IBM engineer server Model 8203 and ORACL data base), and communicates with Point TCC either by wired or wireless communication media.

12 . The system of claim 7 , wherein said Point TCU:

a) provides vehicle based control instructions to RSUs;

b) collects related data from point RSUs;

c) provides optimizer and processor modules to process information and provide control targets; and

d) provides a smaller traffic control unit covering a short distance of a roadway (e.g., 50 meters), ramp metering, or intersections, which are installed for every ramp or intersection; and

e) is connected with a number of RSU units, e.g., ten units.

13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said RSUs comprise:

a) a sensing module that gathers traffic and related information;

b) a data processing module that provides vehicle-specific measurements, including but not limited to speed, headway, acceleration/deceleration rate, the distance between carriageway markings and vehicles, angle of vehicles and central lines, and overall traffic status;

c) a communication module that sends information between vehicles and upper level point TCU;

d) a communication module that sends vehicle-specific driving instructions to vehicles;

e) an interface module that shows data that is sent to an OBU system; and

f) a power supply unit.

14 . The system of claim 1 , comprising a vehicle sub-system comprising one or more modules for:

a) vehicle-control;

b) traffic detection and data collection;

c) wireless communication; and

d) data collection and communication.

15 . The system of claim 1 , configured to redistribute essential vehicle driving tasks among vehicles comprising:

a) providing instructions needed for navigation tasks to the vehicles;

b) providing instructions and information for guidance tasks of: safety maintenance, traffic control/road condition, and special information;

c) fulfilling vehicle maneuver tasks, and monitoring safety maintenance tasks, to take over if the system fails;

d) providing data feeds for information exchange tasks at the control level, which is usually provided by the vehicle sensors in a vehicle;

e) fulfilling vehicle control tasks, at the mechanic level, and monitoring surroundings, and standing-by as a backup system;

f) providing vehicles with driving-critical information, some of which are difficult and expensive for vehicle-based sensors to obtain in a constantly reliable way; and

g) fulfilling driving tasks and using each other as the backup in case of any errors or failures.

16 . The system of claim 1 , comprising an in-vehicle interface selected from the group consisting of:

a) audio: Voice control and Text-to-Voice;

b) vision: Head-up-display (HUD); and

c) vibration.

17 . The system of claim 1 , wherein vehicle identification and tracking functions operate on any or any combination of:

a) CV security certificate;

b) on Board Unit (OBU) ID;

c) mobile device ID;

d) DGPS;

e) vision sensors in combination with video recognition and object detection; and

f) mobile LiDAR sensors.

18 . A multi-dimensional connected and automated vehicle-highway system, comprising hardware and software, said system comprising three dimensions:

a) Dimension 1 (D1): vehicle automation of connected and automated vehicles;

b) Dimension 2 (D2): connectivity of communication among humans, vehicles, and traffic environments; and

c) Dimension 3 (D3): transportation system integration.

19 . A method comprising: managing traffic using a system of claim 1 .