Hello and Welcome!
I am Rasool Mohebifard. I received my Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering-Transportation Systems from North Carolina State University in 2022. My research areas are traffic congestion management, traffic operations in smart cities, and transportation network design. Click here to view my CV.
My Current Research
Traffic Metering or Perimeter Control
Traffic metering regulates the flow of entry vehicles to congested parts of urban networks like downtown areas to prevent gridlocks and to improve traffic operations. Because this problem has large spatial and temporal dimensions, the available techniques aggregate the complexities of traffic dynamics so that the problem becomes tractable. On the other hand, we developed optimization programs that can capture detailed traffic dynamics in a network and find the optimal traffic metering rates dynamically. As a result, the experienced delays by travelers can be reduced significantly. The following animations show the link densities (red being the jam density) and how traffic metering at the boundary intersections of the network can prevent gridlocks and improve traffic operations. Read more here.
Trajectory Control of Autonomous Vehicles
Connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) can coordinate their decisions to avoid long gaps at roundabout entry points and consequently improve traffic operations and safety. Trajectory optimization of CAVs has several complexities at roundabouts and requires customized formulations and solution techniques. One of the main complexities is merge and diverge movements. Another complexity arises from non-linear paths that vehicles follow to enter and exit a roundabout. Consideration of these non-linear paths introduces non-convexity to the optimization program. We developed an approach that can optimize the trajectories of CAVs at roundabouts. The animations demonstrate the movement of vehicles at a roundabout with CAVs and human-driven vehicles. Read more here.
