Mixed Cloud Control Testbed: Validating Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration via Mixed Digital Twin

Reliable and efficient validation technologies are critical for the recent development of multi-vehicle cooperation and vehicle-road-cloud integration. In this paper, we introduce our miniature experimental platform, Mixed Cloud Control Testbed (MCCT), developed based on a new notion of Mixed Digital Twin (mixedDT). Combining Mixed Reality with Digital Twin, mixedDT integrates the virtual and physical spaces into a mixed one, where physical entities coexist and interact with virtual entities via their digital counterparts. Under the framework of mixedDT, MCCT contains three major experimental platforms in the physical, virtual and mixed spaces respectively, and provides a unified access for various human-machine interfaces and external devices such as driving simulators. A cloud unit, where the mixed experimental platform is deployed, is responsible for fusing multi-platform information and assigning control instructions, contributing to synchronous operation and real-time cross-platform interaction. Particularly, MCCT allows for multi-vehicle coordination composed of different multi-source vehicles (e.g., physical vehicles, virtual vehicles and human-driven vehicles). Validations on vehicle platooning demonstrate the flexibility and scalability of MCCT.

I. Introduction

Recent advances in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) network and 5G communication have allowed for data transmission with high reliability and low latency between connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), roadside facilities, and cloud servers. The notion of vehicle-road-cloud integration or cloud control has subsequently attracted extensive attention and promised transportation revolution [1], [2]. Typical research include multi-vehicle platoon control [3], [4], cooperation for multiple connected vehicles at unsignalized intersections [5], and urban traffic network management [6]. These research demonstrate the potential of vehicle-road-cloud integration in significantly reducing energy consumption and improving traffic efficiency [7].