Smart infrastructure and autonomous vehicles: Ensuring safety and efficiency in urban traffic with Control Barrier Functions

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform urban transportation by improving road safety, efficiency, and accessibility. However, urban environments present unique challenges, such as complex traffic dynamics, uncertain obstacles, and limited visibility, necessitating advanced control strategies. This paper builds on previous work to refine a Control Barrier Function-based framework for autonomous vehicles by integrating Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication. Through pairwise CBFs, the proposed architecture utilizes infrastructure-based sensors to enhance situational awareness and decision-making, addressing limitations of onboard sensors alone.