CMEES-Trans-114: Addressing the new reality of vehicle automation in highway design

The road transport sector has undergone radical transformation over the last few decades and is expected to continue doing so due to technological developments. Ubiquitous connectivity, alternative fuels and partial vehicle automation are now very much a reality, with further advances, such as fully autonomous vehicles, expected to become commonplace in the near future.

Nevertheless, even though the nature and characteristics of traffic in urban, inter-urban and rural environments have changed, highway design practices are still based on the same conventional principles that were developed in the mid-20th Century. There is a need to revise these (likely sub-optimal) established practices in order to devise highway geometries and pavements addressing the new transport reality.

The aim of this PhD project is to investigate the influence that varying degrees of vehicle automation could have on optimising highway design features in terms of various criteria, such as traffic efficiency, safety and environmental sustainability. Tasks will include: reviewing highway design standards from several countries; calibrating and executing microscopic models of traffic flows with varying compositions of partially and fully autonomous vehicles; developing a method for measuring the degree to which highway design standards could be optimised to address different scenarios and contexts of vehicle automation; and applying optimisation techniques to a set of specific case studies in order to come up with more efficient highway designs.

The successful candidate should have a solid background in engineering or another quantitative discipline, as evidenced by a good first degree and any other additional qualifications, as well as a lively interest in transport applications.

This is a unique opportunity to join the university’s prestigious Transportation Research Group (TRG) on a fully-funded PhD studentship. The TRG is based at the university’s new Boldrewood Innovation Campus and is one of the UK’s longest established and leading centres for engineering-related transport teaching, research and enterprise. It consists of 36 academic, research and visiting staff and has a portfolio of almost £8 million in grants and contracts, as well as a wide range of facilities supporting research, such as a driving simulator, a fully instrumented vehicle and a command room simulator.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Ioannis Kaparias, Transportation Research Group, Email: [Email Address Removed], Tel: +44 (0) 23 8059 9577.