Control concepts for facilitating motorway on-ramp merging using intelligent vehicles

Congestion at motorway junctions is a traffic phenomenon that degrades operation of infrastructure and can lead to breakdown of traffic flow and associated reduction in capacity. Advanced communication technologies open new possibilities to prevent or at least delay this phenomenon, and innovative active traffic management systems have been developed in the recent years for better control of motorway traffic. This paper presents a review of control strategies for facilitating motorway on-ramp merging using intelligent vehicles. First, the concepts of the control algorithms are reviewed chronologically divided into three types of intelligent vehicle: completely automated, equipped with cooperative adaptive cruise control and equipped with on-board display. Then, a common structure is identified, and the algorithms are presented based on their characteristics in order to identify similarities, dissimilarities, trends and possible future research directions. Finally, using a similar approach, a review of the methods used to evaluate these control strategies identifies important aspects that should be considered by further research on this topic. © 2014, © 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis.