Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair

Rahul Bhadani

Committee Member

Jonathan Blakely

Committee Member

Aubrey N. Beal

Research Advisor

Rahul Bhadani

Subject(s)

Intelligent transportation systems, Real-time control, Traffic flow--Mathematical models

Abstract

The Intelligent Driver Model (IDM) is a car-following model that has existed since the early 2000s, existing as one of the most widely used follow-the-leader models to simulate safe and realistic driver behavior. In this work, the IDM is used to evaluate the suitability of ROS 2-Gazebo for vehicle simulation, showing that significant non-determinism is present within the simulation. Additionally, we evaluate the effects of delay and an inserted Followerstopper car following model on the traffic dynamics of the system. Specifically, the generation of stop-and-go waves in idealized traffic from a dynamical systems perspective is examined. We also show that the Followerstopper model is effective at eliminating emergent stop-and-go waves in the IDM traffic simulation.

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