4. Two-Dimensional Intelligent Driving Model for Complex Road Topology

Microscopic traffic flow models include car following models and lane changing models. The former one describes the longitudinal movement while the latter one describes the lateral movement. The above two models work well under homogeneous roads, which can be treated as parallel lanes. However, for homogenous road topologies such as on and off ramp, the conventional approach cannot be directly applied. This chapter extends the conventional microscopic by assuming that there is a virtual field which is defined over the heterogeneous road topology. The vehicle movement is influenced by such field. Thus the trajectories of the vehicles encapsulate the influence such fields. This chapter develops the concept of the virtual boundary and virtual field in two dimensional configurations. The boundary is fitted using Bezier lines. The virtual field constitutes a repulsive force to the vehicle movement, which determines the vehicular trajectories.