Virtual roundabout protocol for autonomous vehicles

This paper investigates intersection management protocols under an environment in which all vehicles are autonomous and capable of communication. Three potential protocols for intersection control was considered and implemented as a multi-robot system under the Robot Operating System platform. Although these protocols mimic conventional control mechanisms for human-driving, their behaviour under environments of autonomous driving is different. We found that the virtual roundabout, a protocol under which all vehicles follow the real-world rule of roundabouts without a physical roundabout, is most effective among the three protocols with respect to traffic load, safety distance and traffic imbalances.