Operating Concepts for Urban Bus Automation and Intercity Truck Automation

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Operating Concepts for Urban Bus Automation and
Inter-city Truck Automation

• H.-S. Jacob Tsao
• Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• and
• Jan L. Botha
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• San Jose State University

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GOALS OF OPERATING CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

• Development of deployable bus-truck AHS concepts
• Needs driven
• Unprotected Automated Buses - Minimization of
  disturbance to other traffic
• Automated Inter-city Trucking - productivity
  Longer Combination Vehicles (LCVs)
• No unproven technologies
• Real sites

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GOALS OF OPERATING CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

• Development of deployment steps
• not just imaginary end-states
• each step justifying itself
• from the viewpoints of both public- and
  private-sector participants and stakeholders

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A LIGHT-RAIL SYSTEMSan Jose

• Configuration
• Map of current route(s)
• Types of segments
• unprotected
• downtown
• boulevard
• protected

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AN UNPROTECTED AUTOMATED BUS SYSTEM (vs.
Light-Rail) Operating Concept

• Combining the strengths of light-rail and bus
  systems
• Similarity
• mimicking light-rail operations on mainline
• Fundamental Differences
• self-propelled moving units
• electronic link between buses
• same buses performing also local collection and
  distribution

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Automated Elements Enabling a Fast BRT with
Minimum Disturbance to City Traffic

• Mainline
• Lead bus of a platoon
• automated vehicle control for nominal driving
  tasks
• Follower of a platoon
• automated vehicle following
• automated lane following
• Access (with human supervision)
• Automated precision turning
• Automated precision lane-changing
• Egress Similar

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AN UNPROTECTED ABUS Other Salient Features

• Vehicle Operations
• Lead bus human driver present and responsible
  for safe operation of platoon, e.g., detection of
  safety-impacting debris
• Follower
• closely-spaced following enabled electronically
  by automation
• driver possibly not necessary (potential
  labor-cost savings)

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AN UNPROTECTED ABUS Other Salient Features

• System operations
• low- to medium-speed operation for safety
• closely-spaced platooning to avoid excessive
  disturbance to surrounding traffic, enabled by
  automation (not possible for human driver)
• Minimized right-of-way requirements, enabled by
  automated lateral control, e.g., turning. short
  platoons for safety
• ease of bus leaving or joining a platoon
• intra-platoon and inter-platoon transfer at a
  mainline station

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AN UNPROTECTED ABUS Other Salient Features

• Possible New or Better Services
• time-definite bus services from trip origin to
  destination in the same corridor with at most one
  transfer (shorter or more reliable travel time),
  due to signal priority and integrated control of
  signaling and vehicle movement
• lower cost, due to possibly lower labor cost and
  higher ridership

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AN UNPROTECTED ABUS Deployment Steps

• If sufficient right-of-way exists
• An unprotected (but dedicated) busway
• as light-rail replacement or substitute
• as dedicated BRT lanes or busways
• An unprotected busway with bus convoys
• An unprotected busway with closely-spaced bus
  platoons (ABUS already), with full integration of
  bus control and signal control
• An unprotected busway with closely-spaced bus
  platoon and without drivers on trailing buses
  (The Unprotected ABUS)
• Otherwise,
• Automated lane-keeping
• Automated precision turning
• Automated precision lane-changing

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AN UNPROTECTED (BUT DEDICATED) BUSWAYOperating
Concept

• Line-haul right-of-way Similar to that of an
  unprotected light-rail system
• Priority signaling or signal pre-emption
• Same buses serving both line-haul and local
  collection/distribution
• All-manual vehicle operations
• No coordination between buses to reduce
  disturbance to surrounding traffic

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AN UNPROTECTED BUSWAY WITH BUS CONVOYSOperating
Concept

• Same as the previous concept
• Buses coordinate to form bus convoys in order to
  reduce disturbance to surrounding traffic
• Such reduction becomes necessary as bus traffic
  on the busway increases.
• Bus convoying does not require closely-spaced
  platooning, which requires automation.

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AN UNPROTECTED BUSWAY WITH BUS PLATOONS
(ABUS)Operating Concept

• Same as the previous concept
• Buses form closely-spaced platoons through
  automation to further reduce the disturbance to
  the surrounding traffic

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AN UNPROTECTED ABUS WITH BUS PLATOONS AND
DRIVERLESS FOLLOWERSOperating Concept

• Same as the previous concept.
• Trailing buses of a bus platoon are driven
  automatically without human drivers.

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IN CASE OF NARROW RIGHT-OF-WAY

• Automated Lane-keeping
• Automated Precision Turning
• Automated Precision Lane-changing

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A FREEWAY URBAN BUSWAY SYSTEM (Hypothetical
Generic)

• A dedicated bus lane on the first lane from the
  left on a freeway, without physical barriers
  (This could also be a system that is dedicated
  exclusively to bus operations.)
• Access from a regular entrance through the other
  lanes
• Egress to a regular exit through the other lanes

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A PROTECTED BUS AHS

• Why?
• Reduced travel time
• Lower labor cost, if driverless closely-spaced
  bus following is proven safe and supported
• Disturbance to other traffic is no issue because
  of protection.

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A PROTECTED BUS AHS Operating Concepts

• Mainline
• Barrier-separated AHS lane dedicated for bus use
  only
• Access and Egress
• Entrances and exits directly from and to the
  left-most conventional lane
• Coordination among buses, infrastructure
  assistance possibly not necessary

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A PROTECTED BUS AHSOperating Concepts

• Platooning if necessary for efficiency or safety
• short acceleration ramp leading to low- to
  medium-speed upon entering the mainline
  platooning to save space
• driverless operations for the followers to reduce
  labor cost, if safe (If driver is required on all
  buses, benefit becomes less clear.)
• human driver on the lead bus of a platoon, unless
  proven redundant, e.g., for detecting
  safety-impacting debris or for reacting to
  non-nominal events

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A PROTECTED BUS AHS Automated Elements

• Mainline
• Lead bus
• vehicle control for nominal driving tasks
• Follower
• vehicle following
• lane following
• Access
• Egress

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A PROTECTED BUS AHS Other Salient Features

• Dedicated and separate system from the rest of
  freeway traffic, including mainline, entrances
  and exits.
• No shoulder if probability of breakdown is
  negligible or if disabled vehicle can be pushed
  or pulled off by another bus or vehicle

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Inter-city Truck Lane(Hypothetical Generic)

• One truck lane on the first lane from the median
  on a conventional freeway
• Access and egress from the conventional entrances
  and exits

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(Inter-city) Truck AHS Operating Concepts

• Combining the strengths of rail and trucks
• Separated system on freeway median
• Similarity to rail operations
• mimicking rail operations on mainline
• Fundamental differences from rail
• self-propelled moving units
• electronic link between trucks
• same trucks performing also local collection and
  distribution of freight

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(Inter-city) Truck AHS Operating Concepts

• Fundamental differences from conventional
  trucking and benefits
• separate and dedicated facilities
• automated truck following for higher productivity
• higher driver productivity
• higher equipment utilization
• closely-spaced platooning for higher fuel
  efficiency

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(Inter-city) Truck AHS Automated Elements

• Mainline
• Lead truck of a platoon
• vehicle control for nominal driving tasks
• Follower of a platoon
• vehicle following
• lane following
• Access
• Egress

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(Inter-city) Truck AHS Other Salient Features

• Vehicle Operations
• Lead truck of a platoon human driver present
  and responsible for safe operation of platoon,
  e.g., detection of safety-impacting debris
• Follower of a platoon
• closely-spaced following enabled electronically
  by automation
• driver possibly not necessary (potential
  labor-cost savings)

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(Inter-city) Truck AHS Other Salient Features

• Systems Operations
• Homogeneous Platooning organizing trucks of
  different characteristics into different platoons
  for safety
• Truck assembly/disassembly areas
• Possible New or better Services
• AHS hauler

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(Inter-city) Truck AHS Other Salient Features

• Deployment
• Liability negotiation among truck operators
• Steps
• truck lane on conventional freeway
• dedicated truck-lane and staging areas to
  accommodate LCVs
• mixed-traffic truck AHS, with comm./coop.
  capability required for non-automated trucks
• truck AHS
• How to build up population of AHS trucks
• usefulness of some AHS features off AHS
• partial invocation of longitudinal and lateral
  control