Abstract:

This talk summarizes recent rapid progress in integrating machine learning techniques with cloud computing and automation in the context of mixed-autonomy (i.e. contexts in which humans interact with machines). The results are developed in the context of traffic automation. We present a new platform in which a cloud-based system broadcasts high-level “speed plans” (generated through optimal control and neural approximations of hyperbolic partial differential equations) via lossy communication channels such as the cellular network to a fleet of vehicles with a given level of automation. The vehicles, using their local automation stack, run deep reinforcement learning algorithms collaboratively to control surrounding traffic. The algorithms and the platform are designed to smooth “stop-and-go” waves on freeways, which are a significant cause of energy waste and accidents. Results from a large-scale experiment involving 100 automated vehicles are presented, in which Nissan, Toyota, and GM vehicles collectively run the algorithms on the I-24 freeway in Nashville, TN, demonstrating up to a 10% improvement in overall energy consumption.

BIO

Alexandre Bayen is the Founding Associate Provost for the Berkeley Space Center, the Director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute, and the Liao-Cho Professor of Engineering at UC Berkeley. He is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science(link is external), and Civil and Environmental Engineering(link is external). From 2014 - 2021, he served as the Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies(link is external) at UC Berkeley (ITS). He is also a Faculty Scientist in Mechanical Engineering, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(link is external) (LBNL).

He received the Engineering Degree in applied mathematics from the Ecole Polytechnique, France, in 1998, the M.S. and Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in 1999 and 2004, respectively. He was a Visiting Researcher at NASA Ames Research Center from 2000 to 2003. Between January 2004 and December 2004, he worked as the Research Director of the Autonomous Navigation Laboratory at the Laboratoire de Recherches Balistiques et Aerodynamiques, (Ministere de la Defense, Vernon, France), where he holds the rank of Major. He has been on the faculty at UC Berkeley since 2005. Bayen has authored two books and over 200 articles in peer reviewed journals and conferences. He is the recipient of the Ballhaus Award from Stanford University, 2004, of the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, 2009 and he is a NASA Top 10 Innovators on Water Sustainability, 2010. His projects Mobile Century and Mobile Millennium received the 2008 Best of ITS Award for ‘Best Innovative Practice’, at the ITS World Congress and a TRANNY Award from the California Transportation Foundation, 2009. Mobile Millennium has been featured more than 200 times in the media, including TV channels and radio stations (CBS, NBC, ABC, CNET, NPR, KGO, the BBC), and in the popular press (Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times). Bayen is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award from the White House, 2010. He is also the recipient of the Okawa Research Grant Award, the Ruberti Prize from the IEEE, and the Huber Prize from the ASCE.

TBD