Virtual Roundabout Protocol for Autonomous Vehicles

Jianglin Qiao, Dongmo Zhang, Dave de Jonge

Abstract: This paper investigates intersection management protocols under an environment in which all vehicles are autonomous and capable of communication. Three potential protocols for intersection control was considered and implemented as a multi-robot system under the Robot Operating System platform. Although these protocols mimic conventional control mechanisms for human-driving, their behaviour under environments of autonomous driving is different. We found that the virtual roundabout, a protocol under which all vehicles follow the real-world rule of roundabouts without a physical roundabout, is most effective among the three protocols with respect to traffic load, safety distance and traffic imbalances.