Systems-Theoretic Foundation for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

In road traffic the sum of all drivers' individual behavior has an immediate impact on traffic flow. The framework of systems theory helps to explain empirically observable phenomena. In this paper a systems theoretic basis for traffic modeling is set out. A generic system model explains system properties and rearranges them in order to form an explanatory model for the complex behavior observable in a road transportation system. The interrelation between nanoscopic, microscopic and macroscopic traffic variables in traffic simulation is shown using the generic system model. It demonstrates that the approach lined out in this paper is of explanatory power for complex phenomena in the traffic modeling domain. In future this approach can be applied to the calibration and validation of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).