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Virginia Tech

Towards Efficient Autonomous Vehicle Systems: A Multi-Layer Approach

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This dissertation presents a multi-layer framework to enhance the efficiency, predictability, and scalability of autonomous vehicle (AV) systems by addressing critical challenges across system, application, and communication layers. At the system layer, a novel Extended Conflict Directed Graph (ECDG) model is introduced to enable dynamic lane assignment in unsignalized intersection management, improving flexibility and traffic flow coordination. A scheduling algorithm based on breadth-first search achieves up to 16.3% reduction in intersection evacuation time and 27.7% improvement in traffic efficiency. At the application layer, a 1-opt local search-based scheduling framework is proposed for non-preemptive real-time Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) tasks. Using convex subspace partitioning and linear programming to minimize timing metrics such as Data Age, Reaction Time, and Time Disparity, the approach yields 20% to 40% reductions in worst-case latency with strong scalability and polynomial-time complexity. At the communication layer, the Partitioned Combined-DBP-TCCP (PCDT) protocol enables wait-free multicore data communication with configurable buffer strategies tailored to task timing requirements. Two optimization strategies, priority assignment with preemption thresholds (PA-MBTT) and wait-free-aware task partitioning (WFAP+), further reduce memory demands, achieving over 50% savings in simulation and 43% in a real-world automotive case study. Together, these contributions form an integrated and theoretically grounded solution for building real-time, safe, and resource-efficient AV platforms, advancing the state of the art in autonomous systems and real-time embedded computing.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Computer Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2025

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Li, Dong
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Zeng, Haibo
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Chantem, Thidapat
  • Hsiao, Michael S.
  • Farhood, Mazen H.
  • Gerdes, Ryan M.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:44383
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/136483

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Li, Dong. Towards Efficient Autonomous Vehicle Systems: A Multi-Layer Approach. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2025. https://hdl.handle.net/10919/136483