Microscopic Right-of-Way Trading Mechanism for Cooperative Decision-Making: Theories and Preliminary Results

In this paper, a microscopic right-of-way trading mechanism (Micro-ROWTM) is developed to encourage cooperative behavior in mixed traffic, which consists of cooperative vehicles (CoVs) and non-cooperative vehicles (NCoVs). Micro-ROWTM encompasses the following functions: (i) detection of traffic conflicts and system-improving opportunities; (ii) participants reporting their attributes; (iii) right-of-way trade proposed by the system; and (iv) trade settlement and cooperative control. In the experiments, the proposed mechanism is tested using an illustrative ramp-merging example, in which each right-of-way trade proposal is offered to a group of participants comprised of a mainline leader, a mainline follower, and a ramp vehicle. Upon the acceptance of a proposal, the mainline leader and/or mainline follower agrees to behave cooperatively (yield) to the ramp vehicle, and receive monetary compensation from the ramp vehicle in return. To help design the trading mechanism, six important definitions are introduced and discussed, including (i) strong individual rationality, (ii) system efficiency and group efficiency, (iii) dominant-strategy incentive compatibility, (iv) social welfare maximization, (v) utilitarian envy minimization and (vi) payoff difference minimization. A linear programming-based trading and taxation model which satisfies the above definitions is then developed and solved. Using the Micro-ROWTM, when the flow rate is 1000veh/h for both the mainline and ramp traffic, the ramp vehicles can save 6.8% travel time and 27.4% fuel consumption on average, and the mainline vehicles can eventually obtain a positive payoff by compensation. From a system perspective, the ramp-merging section can save 107.5s of travel time and 2450.3g of fuel consumption per hour.