Evaluation of Coordination Strategies for Underground Automated Vehicle Fleets in Mixed Traffic

Abstract

This study investigates the efficiency and safety outcomes of implementing different adaptive coordination models for automated vehicle (AV) fleets, managed by a centralized coordinator that dynamically responds to human-controlled vehicle behavior. The simulated scenarios replicate an underground mining environment characterized by narrow tunnels with limited connectivity. To address the unique challenges of such settings, we propose a novel metric - Path Overlap Density (POD) - to predict efficiency and potentially the safety performance of AV fleets. The study also explores the impact of map features on AV fleets performance. The results demonstrate that both AV fleet coordination strategies and underground tunnel network characteristics significantly influence overall system performance. While map features are critical for optimizing efficiency, adaptive coordination strategies are essential for ensuring safe operations.