Decentralized Optimal Merging Control for Connected and Automated Vehicles on Curved Roads

This paper addresses the optimal control of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) arriving from two curved roads at a merging point where the objective is to jointly minimize the travel time, energy consumption, and passenger discomfort for each CAV. The solution guarantees that a speed-dependent safety constraint and a lateral rollover avoidance constraint are always satisfied, both at the merging point and everywhere within a control zone which precedes it. Our decentralized solution first determines the analytically tractable unconstrained optimal solution. We then use the previously developed joint Optimal Control and Barrier Function (OCBF) method to obtain a controller which optimally tracks such a solution while also guaranteeing all safety and control constraints. Simulation examples are included to compare the performance of the optimal controller to a baseline of human-driven vehicles with results showing significant improvements.