SSM Device

Equipping vehicles#

A vehicle can be equipped with an SSM Device which logs the conflicts of the vehicle and other traffic participants (currently only vehicles) and corresponding safety surrogate measures. To attach an SSM device to a vehicle, the standard device-equipment procedures can be applied using <device name>=ssm.

For instance, a single vehicle can be equipped (with a device parametrized by default values) as in the following minimal example

<routes>
    ...
    <vehicle id="v0" route="route0" depart="0">
        <param key="has.ssm.device" value="true"/>
    </vehicle>
    ....
</routes>

Output File#

The SSM device generates an output file (one for each vehicle named ssm_<vehicleID>.xml per default, but several vehicles may write to the same file). To set a custom file name, define <param key="device.ssm.file" value="FILE"/> either for the <vehicle> or its <vType> element. Alternatively, set option --device.ssm.file to let all vehicles write into the same file.

The top level elements of the generated file are

<conflict begin="<log-begin-time>" end="<log-end-time>" ego="<equipped-vehicleID>" foe="<opponent-vehicleID>"> ... </conflict>.

Output Content Configuration#

The detail of information given for each conflict and the criteria to qualify an encounter as a conflict (i.e., produce a corresponding conflict element in the output) can be customized by a number of generic parameters to the vehicle or device, resp.. A full parametrization (redundantly assigning the default values, here) could look as follows:

<routes>
    ...
    <vehicle id="v0" route="route0" depart="0">
        <param key="has.ssm.device" value="true"/>
        <param key="device.ssm.measures" value="TTC DRAC PET MDRAC"/>
        <param key="device.ssm.thresholds" value="3.0 3.0 2.0 3.4"/>
        <param key="device.ssm.range" value="50.0" />
        <param key="device.ssm.mdrac.prt" value="1.0" />
        <param key="device.ssm.extratime" value="5.0" />
        <param key="device.ssm.file" value="ssm_v0.xml" />
        <param key="device.ssm.trajectories" value="false" />
        <param key="device.ssm.geo" value="false" />
        <param key="device.ssm.write-positions" value="false" />
        <param key="device.ssm.write-lane-positions" value="false" />
        <param key="device.ssm.filter-edges.input-file" value="input_list.txt" />
        <param key="device.ssm.exclude-conflict-types" value="" />
    </vehicle>
    ....
</routes>

Parameters#

The possible parameters are summarized in the following table

Parameter Type Default Remark
measures list of strings All available SSMs This space or comma-separated list of SSM-identifiers determines, which encounter-specific SSMs are calculated for the equipped vehicle's encounters and which global measures are recorded (see below)
thresholds list of floats
  • TTC < 3.0[s]
  • DRAC > 3.0[m/s^2]
  • MDRAC > 3.4[m/s^2]
  • PET < 2.0[s]
  • BR > 0.0[m/s^2]
  • SGAP < 0.2[m]
  • TGAP < 0.5[s]
This space or comma-separated list of SSM-thresholds determines, which encounters are classified as conflicts (if their measurements exceed a threshold) and thus written to the output file as a <conflict>-element. This list is required to have the same length as the list of measures if given.

Note: Currently the global measures are recorded as a single timeline for the whole simulation span and thresholds have only effect insofar a leader is looked for in the distance corresponding to the SGAP and, respectively, TGAP values.
range double 50.0 [m] The devices detection range in meters. Other vehicles are tracked as soon as they are closer than <range> to the equipped vehicle along the road-network. A tree search is performed to find all vehicles up to range upstream and downstream to the vehicle's current position. Further, for all downstream junctions in range, an upstream search for the given range is performed.
extratime double 5.0 [s] The extra time that an encounter is tracked on after not being associated to a potential conflict (either after crossing the conflict area, deviating from a common route, changing lanes, or because vehicles leave the device range, etc.).
file string "ssm_<equipped_vehicleID>.xml" The filename for storing the conflict information of the equipped vehicle. Several vehicles may write to the same file. Conflicts of a single vehicle are written in the order of the log-begin of the encounter.
trajectories bool false Whether the full time lines of the different measured values shall be written to the output. This includes logging the time values, encounter types, vehicle positions and velocities, values of the selected SSMs, and associated conflict point locations. If turned off (default) only the extreme values for the selected SSMs are written.
geo bool false Whether the positions in the output file shall be given in the original coordinate reference system of the network (if available).
write-positions bool false Whether to write the positions (coordinates) to the output.
write-lane-positions bool false Whether to write the lanes and the positions on the lanes to the output.
filter-edges.input-file string - If defined, only conflicts occurred at the provided edges and junctions are measured. See Restricting SSM Device to Edges and Junctions
exclude-conflict-types list of strings - This space or comma-separated list of SSM device conflict type codes determines which conflicts will appear in the output file. Any conflict which has been classified during at least one time step as one of the mentioned types is excluded from the output. Special values "foe" (types {3,7,11,13,15}) and "ego" (types {2,6,10,12,14}) add predefined sets to the list.

Encounter types#

Different types of encounters, e.g. crossing, merging, or lead/follow situations, may imply different calculation procedures for the safety measures. Therefore the SSM-device keeps track of these classifications and provides them in the output to allow the correct interpretation of the corresponding values.

The following table lists the different encounter types along with their codes, which will appear in the output file.

Code Name Description Space Gap Speed Difference Conflict Entry Point
0 NOCONFLICT_AHEAD Foe vehicle is closer than range, but not on a lane conflicting with the ego's route ahead.
1 FOLLOWING General follow/lead situation (incomplete type, used only internally).
2 FOLLOWING_FOLLOWER Ego vehicle is following the foe vehicle. foeBack - egoFront egoSpeed - foeSpeed foeBack
3 FOLLOWING_LEADER Foe vehicle is following the ego vehicle. egoBack - foeFront foeSpeed - egoSpeed egoBack
4 ON_ADJACENT_LANES Foe vehicle is on a neighboring lane of the ego vehicle's lane, driving in the same direction.
5 MERGING Ego and foe share an upcoming edge of their routes while the merging point for the routes is still ahead (incomplete type, only used internally).
6 MERGING_LEADER As 5. The estimated arrival at the merge point is earlier for the foe than for the ego vehicle. foeEntryDist foeSpeed mergePoint
7 MERGING_FOLLOWER As 5. The estimated arrival at the merge point is earlier for the ego than for the foe vehicle. egoEntryDist egoSpeed mergePoint
8 MERGING_ADJACENT As 5. The vehicles' current routes lead to adjacent lanes on the same edge.
9 CROSSING Ego's and foe's routes have crossing edges (incomplete type, only used internally)
10 CROSSING_LEADER As 6. The estimated arrival of the ego at the conflict point is earlier than for the foe vehicle. foeEntryDist foeSpeed foeCrossingPoint
11 CROSSING_FOLLOWER As 6. The estimated arrival of the foe at the conflict point is earlier than for the ego vehicle. egoEntryDist egoSpeed egoCrossingPoint
12 EGO_ENTERED_CONFLICT_AREA The encounter is a possible crossing conflict, and the ego vehicle has entered the conflict area. (Is currently not logged -> TODO) foeEntryDist foeSpeed foeCrossingPoint
13 FOE_ENTERED_CONFLICT_AREA The encounter is a possible crossing conflict, and the foe vehicle has entered the conflict area. (Is currently not logged -> TODO) egoEntryDist egoSpeed egoCrossingPoint
14 EGO_LEFT_CONFLICT_AREA The encounter has been a possible crossing conflict, but the ego vehicle has left the conflict area.
15 FOE_LEFT_CONFLICT_AREA The encounter has been a possible crossing conflict, but the foe vehicle has left the conflict area.
16 BOTH_ENTERED_CONFLICT_AREA The encounter has been a possible crossing conflict, and both vehicles have entered the conflict area (auxiliary type, only used internally, is evaluated to BOTH_LEFT_CONFLICT_AREA or to COLLISION).
17 BOTH_LEFT_CONFLICT_AREA The encounter has been a possible crossing conflict, but both vehicle have left the conflict area.
18 FOLLOWING_PASSED The encounter has been a following situation, but is not active any more.
19 MERGING_PASSED The encounter has been a merging situation, but is not active any more.
20 ONCOMING The vehicles are driving towards each other on the same lane. foeFront - egoFront egoSpeed + foeSpeed midpoint between vehicles
111 COLLISION Collision (currently not implemented, might be differentiated further).

Space Gap Definitions#

  • front: position of front bumper of the vehicle as offset from the start of its lane
  • back: position of back bumper of the vehicle as offset from the start of its lane

Note

When ego and foe vehicles are on subsequent lanes, the gaps are computed by adding the distances of the intermediate lanes

Conflict Types#

Basically, we distinguish between three types of encounters for two vehicles:

  • Lead/follow situation: vehicles are passing the same sequence of lanes before and after the conflict point
  • Crossing situation: vehicles are passing different sequences of lanes before and after the conflict point
  • Merging Situation: vehicles are passing different lanes before the conflict point but the same lane after the conflict point

Conflict Definitions#

For each conflict there is an entry point. For merging and crossing conflicts there is also an exit point. The points may be slightly different for both ego and foe vehicle because the point is computed in reference to the vehicle front or rear bumper whereas a collision could happen with another part of the vehicle.

  • entryDist: distance between the front bumper of the vehicle and the entry point along the lane sequence
  • exitDist for merging and oncoming encounters: entryDist + vehicleLength
  • exitDist for crossing encounters: entryDist + followerLength + leaderWidth
  • mergePoint: start of the first common lane of ego and foe vehicle
  • crossingPoint: point where the lane geometry sequence (center lines) of both vehicles intersects
  • egoCrossingPoint: crossing point shifted upstream along the ego lanes by half of the foe vehicle width
  • foeCrossingPoint: crossing point shifted upstream along the foe lanes by half of the ego vehicle width

Available SSMs#

Currently, the following safety surrogate measures are implemented:

  • TTC (time to collision)
  • DRAC (deceleration rate to avoid a crash)
  • PET (post encroachment time)
  • MDRAC (modified DRAC)

Further, the following additional safety-relevant output can be generated, which will not be linked to a specific encounter:

  • BR (brake rate)
  • SGAP (spacing)
  • TGAP (time headway)

Note

For the selection in the device's output, the abbreviations have to be used.

Please note that some SSMs only apply to a specific encounter or are computed differently for different encounters. For crossing and merging situations, we consider "expected" entry and exit times with respect to the conflict zone. For the calculation of those times for the approaching vehicles, we take into account the current deceleration of the vehicles, if the vehicle is not decelerating, the current speed is extrapolated as a constant (i.e., acceleration is only considered if it is negative).

For some reference to definitions of SSMs see for instance [Guido et al. (2011) "Safety performance measures: a comparison between microsimulation and observational data"] or [Mahmud et al. (2016) "Application of proximal surrogate indicators for safety evaluation: A review of recent developments and research needs"]

TTC#

The time-to-collision is defined for all follow-lead situations for which the follower is faster than the leader. It is given as

TTC = space_gap/speed-difference.

For a crossing or merging situation the TTC is only considered defined if for the case that the expected conflict area exit time of the vehicle A is larger than the expected conflict area entry time for vehicle B, where A is the vehicle with the smaller expected conflict area entry time. If this is the case the TTC is defined as

TTC = B’s distance to conflict area entry / B’s current speed.

DRAC#

For a lead/follow-situation the DRAC (deceleration to avoid a crash) where the follower vehicle's speed is larger than the leader vehicle's speed is defined as

DRAC = 0.5*speed_difference^2/space_gap.

For a crossing situation the DRAC is considered defined only if the expected conflict area exit time tA for the first vehicle (A) is larger than the linearly extrapolated conflict area entry time for the second vehicle (B). In that case, the DRAC is defined as follows:

DRAC = 2*(speedB - distConflictB/tA)/tA.

This value is chosen such that constant deceleration with the corresponding rate would imply that B enters the conflict area exactly at time tA, when vehicle A leaves it.

For a merging situation, both variants for the DRAC calculation must be tested and the minimal result should be applied as the appropriate value for the DRAC.

Note

This has still to be implemented, currently only one variant is used.

MDRAC#

A modified indicator of the DRAC called MDRAC considering a perception-reaction-time (PRT) is defined as

MDRAC = 0.5*speed_difference/(TTC - PRT).

The PRT is configured with param key device.ssm.mdrac.prt or via option --device.ssm.mdrac.prt and defaults to a value of 1 second.

Note

This metric is not fully implemented for all conflict types yet! (only type 0 - 8 are partly tested so far)

PET#

For merging and crossing situations, the PET (post encroachment time) is defined as the difference of the leading vehicle's conflict area exit time tA and the following vehicle's conflict area entry time tB:

PET = tB - tA.

For lead/follow situations, no PET is calculated.

Note

Some deficiencies of the current implementation state:

1) Currently the geometry of the conflict area is considered simplified, considering crossing lanes to be orthogonal.

2) The merging area is not treated (the "conflict area" for merging conflicts is actually considered as the cross section at the beginning of the common target lane.

3) DRAC calculation for merging conflicts is still incomplete

4) Lateral conflicts for opposite or neighboring lane's traffic are ignored

BR#

The brake rate is recorded at each simulation step. If the vehicle accelerates, a value of 0.0 is logged.

SGAP#

The spacing is measured as the bumper to bumper distance to the ego vehicle's leader minus the vehicle's minGap

TGAP#

The time headway to the leading vehicle equals spacing/speed.

Output#

The output for an SSM device is written to a file specified by the parameter device.ssm.file in the routes definition file, see above. The extent of output can be controlled by the parameters device.ssm.measures (which SSMs to report) and device.ssm.trajectories (whether to report complete trajectories for vehicles, the tracked SSMs, and the encounter types).

The resulting file contains a root element <SSMLog>, which contains several <conflict> elements and one <globalMeasures> element. Each reported <conflict> corresponds to a tracked encounter, during which an SSM's criticality threshold was exceeded during the simulation. The <globalMeasures> element holds a timeline for all simulated times and the corresponding values for the selected measures, which are not associated to specific conflicts, see Available_SSMs.

An example for the contents of an output file:

<SSMLog>
     <conflict begin="6.50" end="13.90" ego="ego1" foe="foe1">
         <timeSpan values="6.50 6.60 6.70 6.80 6.90 7.00 7.10 ..."/>
         <typeSpan values="10 10 10 10 10 10 10 ..."/>
         <egoPosition values="98.35,61.20 98.35,60.20 98.35,59.25 ..."/>
         <egoLane values="NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 ..."/>
         <egoLanePosition values="59.73 61.12 62.51 63.89 65.28 66.67 68.06 ..."/>
         <egoVelocity values="0.00,-10.23 0.00,-9.78 0.00,-9.33 ..."/>
         <foePosition values="76.31,48.35 77.59,48.35 78.82,48.35 ..."/>
         <foeLane values="WC_0 WC_0 WC_0 WC_0 WC_0 WC_0 WC_0 ..."/>
         <foeLanePosition values="45.84 47.23 48.62 50.00 51.39 52.78 54.17 ..."/>
         <foeVelocity values="13.02,0.00 12.57,0.00 12.12,0.00 ..."/>
         <conflictPoint values="99.23,49.46 99.23,49.46 99.23,49.46 ..."/>
         <TTCSpan values="1.78 1.74 1.70 1.67 1.63 1.60 1.56 ..."/>
         <minTTC time="7.40" position="99.23,49.46" type="10" value="1.48" speed="13.50"/>
         <DRACSpan values="3.66 3.61 3.56 3.50 3.44 3.37 3.30 ..."/>
         <maxDRAC time="6.50" position="99.23,49.46" type="10"
value="3.66" speed="12.95"/>
         <PET time="9.42" position="99.23,49.46" type="17" value="0.72" speed="5.12"/>
     </conflict>
     <conflict begin="21.50" end="27.20" ego="ego1" foe="foe2">
         ...
     </conflict>
     ...
    <globalMeasures ego="ToC_veh">
        <timeSpan values="0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00 ..."/>
        <positions values="98.35,61.20 98.35,60.20 98.35,59.25 ..."/>
        <lane values="NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 NC_0 ..."/>
        <lanePosition values="0.00 1.39 2.78 4.17 5.56 6.95 8.33 9.72 11.11 12.50 13.89 ..."/>
        <BRSpan values="0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 ..."/>
        <maxBR time="363.20" position="1850.01,-4.95" value="5.53"/>
        <SGAPSpan values="27.50 27.50 27.49 27.45 27.38 27.29 27.17 27.02 26.85 26.65 ..."/>
        <minSGAP time="365.50" position="1863.41,-4.95" value="0.31" leader="leader"/>
        <TGAPSpan values="inf 105.77 52.86 35.19 26.33 20.99 17.41 14.85 12.91 11.39 10.16 ..."/>
        <minTGAP time="365.30" position="1863.14,-4.95" value="0.23" leader="leader"/>
    </globalMeasures>
</SSMLog>

Elements of type <conflict> hold the following information in their child elements:

Element Attribute Type Description Parameter
timeSpan values list of floats All simulation time points within the duration of the encounter. All other entries of elements with list-type are given with respect to the corresponding time points. --device.ssm.trajectories
typeSpan values list of integers (Encounter type codes) Timeseries of classifications for the tracked encounter. --device.ssm.trajectories
egoPosition values list of 2D-coordinates Timeseries of the ego vehicle's positions (coordinates). --device.ssm.trajectories
egoLane values list of strings Timeseries of the ego vehicle's lane IDs. --device.ssm.trajectories --device.ssm.write-lane-positions
egoLanePosition values list of floats Timeseries of the ego vehicle's positions on the lane. --device.ssm.trajectories --device.ssm.write-lane-positions
egoVelocity values list of 2D-vectors Timeseries of the ego vehicle's velocity vectors. --device.ssm.trajectories
foePosition values list of 2D-coordinates Timeseries of the foe vehicle positions (coordinates). --device.ssm.trajectories
foeLane values list of strings Timeseries of the foe vehicle's lane IDs. --device.ssm.trajectories --device.ssm.write-lane-positions
foeLanePosition values list of floats Timeseries of the foe vehicle's positions on the lane. --device.ssm.trajectories --device.ssm.write-lane-positions
foeVelocity values list of 2D-vectors Timeseries of the foe vehicle's velocity vectors. --device.ssm.trajectories
conflictPoint values list of 2D-coordinates Timeseries of the (eventually extrapolated) coordinates of the conflict point. The conflict point is taken as the respective entry point to the conflict area. --device.ssm.trajectories
TTCSpan values list of floats Timeseries of the calculated TTC values. May contain entries 'NA' corresponding to times, where TTC is not defined. --device.ssm.trajectories --device.ssm.measures "TTC"
DRACSpan values list of floats Timeseries of the calculated DRAC values. May contain entries 'NA' corresponding to times, where DRAC is not defined. --device.ssm.trajectories --device.ssm.measures "DRAC"
minTTC time float Time point of the minimal measured value for the TTC. --device.ssm.measures "TTC"
position 2D-coordinate Coordinate of the corresponding conflict point. --device.ssm.measures "TTC"
type integer (Encounter type code) Type code of the corresponding encounter type. (Defines the variant of TTC-calculation.) --device.ssm.measures "TTC"
value float >= 0 The minimal measured TTC-value. --device.ssm.measures "TTC"
speed float >= 0 The speed of the reporting vehicle at the occurence of minTTC. --device.ssm.measures "TTC"
maxDRAC time float Time point of the maximal measured value for the DRAC. --device.ssm.measures "DRAC"
position 2D-coordinate Coordinate of the corresponding conflict point. --device.ssm.measures "DRAC"
type integer (Encounter type code) Type code of the corresponding encounter type. (Defines the variant of DRAC-calculation.) --device.ssm.measures "DRAC"
value float >= 0 The maximal measured DRAC-value. --device.ssm.measures "DRAC"
speed float >= 0 The speed of the reporting vehicle at the occurence of maxDRAC. --device.ssm.measures "DRAC"
PET time float Time point of the minimal measured value for the PET. (Usually the PET is only measured once, therefore no PETSpan is reported.) --device.ssm.measures "PET"
position 2D-coordinate Coordinate of the corresponding encroachment point. --device.ssm.measures "PET"
type integer (Encounter type code) Type code of the corresponding encounter type. --device.ssm.measures "PET"
value float >= 0 The measured PET-value. --device.ssm.measures "PET"
speed float >= 0 The speed of the reporting vehicle at the occurence of PET. --device.ssm.measures "PET"

The <globalMeasures> element has the following structure:

Element Attribute Type Description Parameter
timeSpan values list of floats Simulation time points at which the reported measures are logged.
positions values list of 2D-coordinates Simulation positions at which the reported measures are logged. --device.ssm.write-positions
lane values list of strings Simulation lane IDs at which the reported measures are logged. --device.ssm.write-lane-positions
lanePosition values list of floats Simulation positions on the lane at which the reported measures are logged. --device.ssm.write-lane-positions
BRSpan values list of floats Values of the brake rate at the time points given in timeSpan. --device.ssm.measures "BR"
SGAPSpan values list of floats Values of the spacing at the time points given in timeSpan. --device.ssm.measures "SGAP"
TGAPSpan values list of floats Values of the time headway at the time points given in timeSpan. --device.ssm.measures "TGAP"
maxBR time float Time at which the maximal value of the brake rate was recorded. --device.ssm.measures "BR"
value float Maximal recorded value for the brake rate. --device.ssm.measures "BR"
position 2D-coordinate Position of the ego vehicle, where the maximal brake rate was recorded. --device.ssm.measures "BR"
minSGAP time float Time at which the minimal spacing was recorded. --device.ssm.measures "SGAP"
value float Minimal recorded value for the spacing. --device.ssm.measures "SGAP"
position 2D-coordinate Position of the ego vehicle, where the minimal spacing was recorded. --device.ssm.measures "SGAP"
minTGAP time float Time at which the minimal time headway was recorded. --device.ssm.measures "TGAP"
value float Minimal recorded value for the time headway. --device.ssm.measures "TGAP"
position 2D-coordinate Position of the ego vehicle, where the minimal time headway was recorded. --device.ssm.measures "TGAP"

Restricting SSM Device to Edges and Junctions#

The option --device.ssm.filter-edges.input-file <input_list> can be used to specify an input file containing edgeIDs and junctionIDs that are used to restrict the measurement of conflicts. The edges and junctions must be defined as following:

edge:edgeID1
edge:edgeID2
...
junction:junctionID1
junction:junctionID2
...

The edges adjoining the given junctions and the given edges are used to measure the conflicts. Only conflicts occuring at these edges are measured and outputed.

TraCI#

The following values can be retrieved for equipped vehicles if they have enabled the corresponding measures:

  • traci.vehicle.getParameter(vehID, "device.ssm.minTTC")
  • traci.vehicle.getParameter(vehID, "device.ssm.minPET")
  • traci.vehicle.getParameter(vehID, "device.ssm.maxDRAC")

The values correspond to the current min/max for all currently active encounters.

Visualization Examples#

The SSM output file can be used as input to plotXMLAttributes.py. Here is an example: