Stanley Smith

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2021-175

August 9, 2021

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2021/EECS-2021-175.pdf

Important control applications in the fields of robotics and transportation frequently involve high-dimensional systems; for example, robots with many degrees of freedom, or groups of connected automated vehicles (CAVs). In safety-critical applications, the system of interest must also meet a complex set of requirements formalized in a control specification. Formal methods for control synthesis are useful in such applications since they partially automate the controller design process, while also providing guarantees that the control specification will be satisfied. However, when the system dimension becomes too large, such techniques cannot be directly applied due to their computational complexity.

This dissertation focuses on addressing this challenge using hierarchical and distributed control techniques, with an emphasis on applications in transportation. To enable control synthesis for high-dimensional systems, in Chapter 2 we propose techniques for constructing approximate abstractions of a class of interconnected control systems, to be used in a hierarchical control framework. On the application side, in Chapters 3 and 4 we explore the potential for CAVs to improve the efficiency and safety of traffic flows at intersections. For improving efficiency, we discuss how traffic throughput at intersections can be increased by forming vehicle platoons. In particular, this is accomplished using a distributed model-predictive control approach, which is enabled by vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. For improving safety, we show how safe behaviors can be accurately characterized for certain challenging driving maneuvers, such as unprotected left turns.

Advisors: Murat Arcak

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BibTeX citation:

@phdthesis{Smith:EECS-2021-175,
    Author= {Smith, Stanley},
    Title= {Control of High-Dimensional Systems with Applications in Transportation},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2021},
    Month= {Aug},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2021/EECS-2021-175.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2021-175},
    Abstract= {Important control applications in the fields of robotics and transportation frequently involve high-dimensional systems; for example, robots with many degrees of freedom, or groups of connected automated vehicles (CAVs). In safety-critical applications, the system of interest must also meet a complex set of requirements formalized in a control specification. Formal methods for control synthesis are useful in such applications since they partially automate the controller design process, while also providing guarantees that the control specification will be satisfied. However, when the system dimension becomes too large, such techniques cannot be directly applied due to their computational complexity.

This dissertation focuses on addressing this challenge using hierarchical and distributed control techniques, with an emphasis on applications in transportation. To enable control synthesis for high-dimensional systems, in Chapter 2 we propose techniques for constructing approximate abstractions of a class of interconnected control systems, to be used in a hierarchical control framework. On the application side, in Chapters 3 and 4 we explore the potential for CAVs to improve the efficiency and safety of traffic flows at intersections. For improving efficiency, we discuss how traffic throughput at intersections can be increased by forming vehicle platoons. In particular, this is accomplished using a distributed model-predictive control approach, which is enabled by vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. For improving safety, we show how safe behaviors can be accurately characterized for certain challenging driving maneuvers, such as unprotected left turns.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Smith, Stanley 
%T Control of High-Dimensional Systems with Applications in Transportation
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2021
%8 August 9
%@ UCB/EECS-2021-175
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2021/EECS-2021-175.html
%F Smith:EECS-2021-175