Human-Centric Intelligent Systems - Call for Papers for the Special Issue: Human-like decision-making for autonomous vehicles in uncertain environments

Aims and Scope

Autonomous driving is one of the most ambitious and challenging frontiers in modern technology, poised to fundamentally enhance safety and efficiency of future transportation operations. However, due partly to the complexity and uncertainty of the open traffic environments, current deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on roads still falls far short of human drivers' performance, leading passengers in AVs to feel uncomfortable and dissatisfied, and leaving surrounding vehicles bewildered in many cases. More importantly, it may increase the likelihood of road crashes and conflicts as well. When existing technologies fail to address these challenges, researchers and developers have endeavoured to draw inspiration from human drivers' cognition and behaviour, aiming to enable AVs to drive like humans. Bio-inspired neural morphologies are expected to simplify the interaction decision process of AVs, to improve their perception and learning capabilities in complex real-world environments, and to enhance the adaptability and agility of their decision-making. The underlying principle lies in elucidating the reciprocal coupling between sensation and reaction under environmental stimuli through human neural information circulation and editing.

This special issue aims to foster the flexibility and reliability of AV decision-making in open environments with random uncertainties. We seek for papers that integrate computer and information science, transportation science, operations research, cognitive neuroscience, and psychology into the direction of human-like autonomous driving.

Main topics and quality control

• Emotional development framework for autonomous vehicles

• Uncertainty modeling for autonomous driving

• Coordination failure mechanisms in autonomous driving

• Construction of multidimensional personality in autonomous driving

• Decision-making algorithms based on interpretable neural networks

• Decision optimization considering the emotions of passengers and drivers

• Multi-agent reinforcement learning

• Human-machine interaction strategies based on game theory

• Construction of human-like driving knowledge graphs

• Autonomous driving decision-making based on LLMs

Image Credit: metamorworks / Getty images / iStock

Full papers will be subject to a strict review procedure for final selection to this special issue based on the following criteria:

1. Quality and originality in theory and methodology of the special issue.

2. Relevance to the topic of the special issue.

3. Application orientation which exhibits novelty.

4. If there is an implementation, the details of the implementation must be provided.

5. Presence of the following statements (if applicable): disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, research involving human participants and/or animals, informed consent.

Important date

Open date:                            01 July 2024

Close date:                            31 December 2024

Submit your paper

All papers have to be submitted via the Editorial Manager online submission and peer review system. Instructions will be provided on screen and you will be stepwise guided through the process of uploading all the relevant article details and files associated with your submission. During submission authors should indicate that their manuscript belongs to the special issue “Human-like decision-making for autonomous vehicles in uncertain environments” (this question will appear at “Additional Information” step). All manuscripts must be in the English language.

To access the online submission site for the journal, please visit https://www.editorialmanager.com/hcin/default1.aspx. Note that if this is the first time that you submit to the Human-Centric Intelligent Systems, you need to register as a user of the system first.

NOTE: Before submitting your paper, please make sure to review the journal's Author Guidelines first.

After Acceptance

This special issue will be published as a virtual collection that will be accessible at SpringerLink.

Accepted papers will be published online within about 20 days after acceptance, fully citable by DOI (Digital Object Identifier), prior to publication in the issue.”

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 9: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure.

Introduction of the guest editor(s)

Prof. Dr. Yongjun Shen

Southeast University, China

 Dr. Yongjun Shen is currently a full professor of the School of Transportation at Southeast University in China. He received his Ph.D in Transportation Sciences from Transportation Research Institute (IMOB) of Hasselt University, Belgium. Dr. Shen’s current research interests include traffic and transportation safety, intelligent and autonomous driving, behavior-related data mining and decision support, etc. During the past years, Dr. Shen has coordinated and participated in a number of research projects funded by EU, FWO, IWT, NSFC, MOST, etc., and has published over 120 articles in scientific peer-reviewed journals, books, and conferences.

Prof. Dr. Yanyong Guo

Southeast University, China

Dr. Yanyong Guo is a professor of Southeast University. Dr. Guo’s research field is transportation engineering, mainly focus on traffic safety, traffic conflict technique, and CAV safety. He serves as an editor of Accident Analysis & Prevention, Multimodel Transportation, Journal of Advanced Transportation, and Journal of China Highway. He obtains a number of awards including several best paper awards, Accident Analysis and Prevention outstanding reviewer award, Physica A outstanding reviewer award, and Transportation Research Part C reviewing awards.

Prof. Dr. Zhongxiang Feng

Hefei University of Technology, China

Dr. Zhongxiang Feng is a professor of Hefei University of Technology in China. His research area focuses on traffic safety. Dr. Feng has led 4 projects funded by NSFC, 1 KR of Anhui Province, 1 doctoral program by ME, 1 military industry project, 1 doctoral general project, and more than 40 local traffic-related service projects. He has published more than 70 academic papers in high quality journals such as TR A/B/C/D/F, one monograph, one textbook and six standards, has applied/authorized more than 50 patents and authorized two software copyrights, and has obtained 9 awards such as the Anhui Provincial STP Award.