Adapting a cellular automata model to describe heterogeneous traffic with human-driven, automated, and communicating automated vehicles

This paper introduces a cellular automaton design for single lane highway sections with a reduced time step length of 0.1 s. It is able to model automated and human vehicle agents in heterogeneous as well as homogeneous traffic. Furthermore, it allows agents to adopt different behaviour patterns depending on whether they follow automated or human vehicle agents. A distinction between communicating and non-communicating automated vehicles is also possible. Simulations showed that autonomous vehicles are expected to increase road capacity, reduce the frequency and lifetime of traffic jams, and improve traffic synchronisation. Homogeneous communicating automated vehicles traffic can increase the capacity up to about 480% compared to conventional traffic. Furthermore, potential problems with the human-robot interaction that could result in accidents were identified and removed. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.