Infrastructure Assisted Automation of Lane Change Manoeuvre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

This paper proposes an innovative way of performing efficient lane changes in road traffic composed of autonomous vehicles. In a world where more and more objects are connected to the Internet and are involved in the constant flow of data, it seems logical that automobile traffic made of inter-connected vehicles will soon arise. To be widely used by the public, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) need to safely and efficiently perform lane change manoeuvre which is one of the most dangerous manoeuvres on the road. This paper proposes an original lane change protocol inspired by the way mutual exclusion works in an Operating System. The protocol benefits from the smart road infrastructure support to efficiently track open spaces between moving vehicles and prepare the most suitable space for a vehicle aiming to change its current lane. The evaluation results highlight the efficiency of our protocol and its potential to make journeys by vehicle enjoyable for all occupants.