EPSRC DLA: Understanding and Enhancing Pedestrian-Automated Vehicle Interactions in Complex Traffic Scenarios

One full scholarship is available in the Institute for Transport Studies for 2025/26 entry for a Home fee rated applicant. This is a highly competitive EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award Studentship offering the award of UK fees, together with a tax-free maintenance grant (currently £19,237 for academic session 2024/25) for 3.5 years. This award is only available to Home fee rated applicants. Training and support will also be provided. Please note that whilst you may be successful in securing an academic offer for this project, this does not mean that you have been successful in securing an offer of funding. Funding is awarded on a competitive basis. <br /> <br /> Background: Interaction is defined as ‘A situation where the behaviour of at least two road users can be interpreted as being influenced by a space-sharing conflict between the road users.’ (Markkula et al., 2020). In our current and every day road users’ interactions, there are a number of kinematics factors that are important in resolving interactions (e.g., short-stop behaviours, priority assertion, lateral deviations) (Markkula et al., 2023; Yang et al., 2024). Interactions can also be resolved by explicit communication (i.e., hand waves, flashing headlights, or honking), although to a much lesser extent (Lee et al., 2020). In addition, how road users resolved interactions using different cues could play out differently depending on road infrastructure and use.

<p paraeid="{ec634003-9245-4f6e-9db9-6fddd1c30686}{121}" paraid="206813293">In recent years, there has been a surge in interest in designing and evaluating external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) as a new form of communication to aid P-AV interactions, especially in communicating their yielding intention. eHMI increased pedestrians' likelihood of crossing and decreased their crossing initiation time, and pedestrians generally felt more positive towards AVs with eHMIs. The effectiveness of eHMI and the outcome of interactions were found to be dependent on the kinematics behaviour of the approaching AVs and road infrastructure.</p> <p paraeid="{ec634003-9245-4f6e-9db9-6fddd1c30686}{121}" paraid="206813293"><strong>Research gap and objective</strong>: This EPSRC-DLA student project would close this research gap by building upon the previous findings and expand the P-AV investigation to include a wider range of Use Cases such as, and not limited to, interactions with multiple existing road users who have different goals, traffic consisting of AVs with varying levels of automation, presence of eHMIs and different traffic flow parameters (e.g., speeds, time gaps, distances). It is also part of the project to define evaluation criteria for such road users’ interactions in a complex setting. The findings of this PhD programme should inform how AVs should be designed to enhance safe interactions in complex traffic scenarios. </p> <p paraeid="{ec634003-9245-4f6e-9db9-6fddd1c30686}{127}" paraid="778104293"><strong>Method</strong>: The student will conduct a literature review to identify potential use cases for the research topic and formulate hypotheses based on existing studies of P-AV one-to-one interactions and real-world observations studies of interactions involving multiple road users. The complexity of traffic scenarios could be increased with the number/type of road users during the interactions, the number/type of different goals of each road user, and implicit/explicit communication exhibited by these road users. Interviews could be conducted to interpret how interactions could play out from each road user’s perspective and explore the potential factors that might affect the interaction in the identified use cases. Secondary data sets could be used to explore the above-mentioned research questions. The few factors derived will be implemented in VR in which we will investigate pedestrians’ perception (e.g., naturalness, comprehension) and how fast the interaction is resolved. </p> <p paraeid="{ec634003-9245-4f6e-9db9-6fddd1c30686}{137}" paraid="401289029"><strong>Strategy and Impact</strong>: This project aligns closely with the research strategy and vision of the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) and Human Factors and Safety's (HF&S) group by promoting improved road user safety and traffic efficiency. This project also features the Virtuocity facilities as its main research centre. The work will further strengthen our internationally leading position in improving user interactions with automated vehicles (AVs) and will expand our capabilities in virtual prototyping and testing by leveraging and enhancing the facilities at Virtuocity. The supervisor is actively involved in the ISO WG meeting and BSI CAM Standards Coordination Group and has close collaborations with over 40 key international stakeholders, including OEMs. The project's output will be shared with these groups, providing opportunities directly impacting standardisation.</p>

<p>Formal applications for research degree study should be made online through the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/research-applying/doc/applying-research-degrees">University's website</a>. You will need to create a login ID with a username and PIN. <strong>Please follow these instructions carefully or your application may not be considered.</strong></p> <ul> <li>For ‘Application type’ please select ‘Research Degrees – Research Postgraduate’.</li> <li>The admission year for this project is 2025/26 Academic Year.</li> <li>You will need to select your ‘Planned Course of Study’ from a drop-down menu. For this project, you must scroll down and select ‘<strong>EPSRC DLA Environment</strong>’. If you do not apply under this programme code, your application cannot be considered.</li> <li>Please state the funding you wish to be considered for is <strong>EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award 2025/26: Environment</strong>.</li> <li>The project start date for this project is October 2025, please use this as your Proposed Start Date of Research.</li> <li>Please state clearly in the research information section that the research degree you wish to be considered for is <strong>EPSRC DLA: Understanding and Enhancing Pedestrian-Automated Vehicle Interactions in Complex Traffic Scenarios</strong> as well as Dr Yee Mun Lee as your proposed supervisor.</li> <li>You must provide the following documents in your application: <ul> <li>Full transcripts of all degree study, or if in final year of study, full transcripts to date</li> <li>Personal statement outlining your interest in the project</li> <li>CV</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p paraeid="{790021b7-4ac3-44f0-8be8-850148d45e0e}{232}" paraid="490689747">If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence that you meet the University's minimum English language requirements (below). </p> <p paraeid="{790021b7-4ac3-44f0-8be8-850148d45e0e}{242}" paraid="961643973"><em>As an international research-intensive university, we welcome students from all walks of life and from across the world. We foster an inclusive environment where all can flourish and prosper, and we are proud of our strong commitment to student education. Across all Faculties we are dedicated to diversifying our community and we welcome the unique contributions that individuals can bring, and particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to Black, Asian, people who belong to a minority ethnic community, people who identify as LGBT+ and people with disabilities. Applicants will always be selected based on merit and ability. </em></p>

Applicants should normally have a bachelor degree with a minimum of 2:1 (Hons) or equivalent, or a good performance in a Masters level course. The applicant should have an engineering background with a passion for human factors or a psychology background with strong programming and analytical skills (e.g. Python, MATLAB, R, Unity). Applicants who are uncertain about the entry requirements for a particular research degree are advised to contact the Postgraduate Research Admissions team prior to making an application.

The minimum English language entry requirement for research postgraduate research study is an IELTS of 6.0 overall with at least 5.5 in each component (reading, writing, listening and speaking) or equivalent. The test must be dated within two years of the start date of the course in order to be valid. Some schools and faculties have a higher requirement.

<p>This competitive EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award offers the award of tuition fees at the Home rate, together with a tax-free maintenance grant (currently £19,237 for academic session 2024/25) for 3.5 years. Training and support will also be provided. This award is only available to Home fee rated applicants.</p> <p>Please note that whilst you may be successful in securing an academic offer for any project linked to this funding advertised project or own research proposal, this does not mean that you have been successful in securing an offer of funding. Funding is awarded on a competitive basis.</p> <p>Please refer to the <a href="https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/">UKCISA</a> website for information regarding fee status for Non-UK Nationals.</p>

<p>For further information please contact the Postgraduate Research Admissions team: <a href="mailto:env-pgr@leeds.ac.uk?subject=EPSRC%20DLA%3A%20Promoting%20Healthy%20Ageing%20through%20Diverse%20Mobility%20Options">env-pgr@leeds.ac.uk</a>. </p>