STIP: Spatio-temporal intersection protocols for autonomous vehicles

Azimi, Reza; Bhatia, Gaurav; Rajkumar, Ragunathan Raj; Mudalige, Priyantha · 2014 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1109/iccps.2014.6843706

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Summary

This paper addresses the critical challenges of safety and efficiency at road intersections and roundabouts, which are significant bottlenecks in urban transportation. Current management systems, such as traffic lights and stop signs, contribute to over 44% of reported crashes in the United States and cause substantial delays, costing billions annually. With the rise of autonomous vehicles, the authors propose Spatio-Temporal Intersection Protocols (STIP), a family of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication protocols designed to manage safe passage through intersections without relying on centralized infrastructure. The research aims to increase traffic throughput while preventing collisions, leveraging the potential of cooperative driving in Intelligent Transportation Systems. The study develops and evaluates three categories of STIP: Minimal Concurrency Protocols (MCP), High Concurrency Protocols (HCP), and the newly introduced High Concurrency Protocols with Slowdown (HCPS). These protocols rely on Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) and GPS localization. Vehicles broadcast safety messages containing trajectory details, such as the Trajectory Cells List (TCL), to negotiate right-of-way based on a First-Come, First-Served priority policy. The HCPS category, specifically the Advanced Cross Intersection Protocol (AC-IP), allows lower-priority vehicles to slow down rather than come to a complete stop when conflicting with higher-priority vehicles, thereby reducing acceleration delays and improving fuel efficiency. The authors implemented these protocols in a hybrid emulator-simulator called AutoSim, incorporating realistic GPS error models to assess robustness against position inaccuracy. The results demonstrate that STIP effectively avoids collisions and significantly improves intersection throughput. Simulation data indicates that the proposed protocols can increase throughput by up to 87.82% compared to traditional traffic-light signalized intersections. The paper also provides a formal proof that the AC-IP protocol is deadlock-free, ensuring that vehicles do not enter circular waiting states that could halt traffic flow. The protocols successfully handle complex scenarios, including roundabouts with fewer conflict points than traditional intersections, and maintain safety even when accounting for GPS positioning errors. The significance of this work lies in its contribution to the development of infrastructure-free, cooperative autonomous driving systems. By enabling vehicles to coordinate directly via V2V communications, STIP offers a scalable solution to intersection congestion and safety issues. The introduction of slowdown mechanisms in HCPS protocols highlights a shift from binary stop-go behaviors to more fluid, efficient traffic management, which enhances passenger comfort and energy efficiency. This research supports the broader transition toward autonomous urban transportation by providing reliable, distributed methods for managing high-risk traffic environments.

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• v2x connected vehicle