Neural network model for recognition and classification of types of interactions in road traffic

The article presents neural network for recognition of driving strategies based on interactions between drivers in road traffic. It analyzes the architecture of the model implemented as a self-organizing map (SOM), consisting of a group of neural networks based on radial basis functions (RBF). It is a training model grounded in the biological foundations of artificial neural networks, in which the training set should consist exclusively of input vectors; wherein the network training algorithm adjusts itself the network’s weights to obtain consistent output vectors (i.e. to make presenting sufficiently close input vectors result into the same outputs). The article presents the results of using a new generation of the neural network developed by us, which includes an adaptive learning algorithm to reduce the effect of re-training (overfitting) and false recognition, as well as to improve the determination of the boundaries between clusters. The aim of the research is to outline architecture and structure of the neural network model that allows recognizing strategical characteristics of driving and can identify strategies of interactions between vehicles (their drivers) in road traffic as well as identify behavioral patterns This paper considers driving strategies that characterize the interaction of dyads of vehicles (drivers) moving in road traffic. The research results show that the SOM RBF neural networks can recognize and classify types of interactions in road traffic based on modelling of the analysis of vehicle movement trajectories. Experimental results demonstrate the neural networks architecture and networks learning involving 400 iterations of streaming the training data representing 500 possible simulated interaction situations. This paper presents a novel neural network model for recognition of drivers’ behaviour patterns and for classification of driving strategies into five general classes: (1) competition strategy, (2) contest strategy, (3) evasion strategy, (4) compromise strategy, and (5) active confrontation strategy. This neural network has demonstrated a high rate of recognition and concise clusterization of similar driving strategies. The key contribution of this paper: it proposes a neural network model based on Kohonen’s Self-Organizing Map (SOM) for detecting drivers’ behaviours from vehicle movement patterns – driving strategies – instead of monitoring driver’s specific activities.