Publications

MAPLE: Macro–Micro Aligned Pigouvian Lane Control for Mixed-Autonomy Traffic Efficiency Best Paper

Kexin Wang, Gavin Huang, Zehao Wang, Jiachen Li, and Ruolin Li

8th Bridging Transportation Researchers Conference (BTR) Conference contribution · Manuscript under review

Accepted for presentation at INFORMS 2026 and TRB 2027 as “MAPLE: Macro–Micro Aligned Predictive Lane-Change Coordination for Mixed-Autonomy Traffic Efficiency.”

Western Track Best Paper Award · 8th BTR Conference, 2026

When Altruism Meets Autonomy: Managing Bottleneck Congestion with Strategic Autonomous Vehicles

Kexin Wang, Haohui He, and Ruolin Li

arXiv:2604.21941 Preprint · Under review

TRB 2026 conference presentation: “When Altruism Meets Autonomy: Managing Weaving Ramp Congestion with Strategic AVs.”

Agent-Based Evolutionary Dynamics for Mixed Autonomy Weaving Ramps

Sheryl Paul, Kexin Wang, Ruolin Li, and Jyotirmoy V. Deshmukh

IFAC Workshop on Cyber-Physical Human Systems (CPHS) 2026 Accepted conference paper

Bounded Mediation: Limiting LLM Execution Authority in Cyber-Physical Systems

Kexin Wang, Yizhe Guan, and Ruolin Li

NeurIPS 2026 AIWILD · TRB 2027 Accepted for presentation

Topology-Aware Congestion Pricing: Demand Robust Routing using the Forman-Ricci Curvature

Sheryl Paul, Samuel Williams, Kexin Wang, Ruolin Li, and Jyotirmoy V. Deshmukh

arXiv:2609.14980 Preprint

The Regime-Dependent Cost of Equity in Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Rebalancing

Tyler Davis, Kexin Wang, and Ruolin Li

TRB 2027 Accepted for presentation

Stackelberg Routing in Mixed-Autonomy Networks with Heterogeneous User Preferences

Luyao Niu and Ruolin Li

INFORMS 2026 Accepted for presentation

A Wardrop-Equilibrium-Based Model for Multi-Lane Merging Behavior at Highway On-Ramp Areas

Yizhe Guan, Kexin Wang, and Ruolin Li

TRB 2027 Accepted for presentation

Interpretable Cost Modeling for Strategic Driving Decisions via LLM-Guided Symbolic Reasoning

Yizhe Guan, Kexin Wang, and Ruolin Li

TRB 2027 Accepted for presentation

AI4Fire: Evaluating Large Language Models on Wildfire Tasks

Yue Zhao, Xiyang Hu, Zuobin Xiong, Zhangyu Wang, and Ruolin Li

arXiv:2610.10946 Preprint

CatchBench: When Can an Agent Failure Be Caught?

Yue Zhao, Mengyuan Li, Ruolin Li, Prince Zizhuang Wang, Shuli Jiang, Linsey Pang, Xiongye Xiao, and Xiyang Hu

arXiv:2608.22808 Preprint

Equilibrium in Mixed-Autonomy Ride-Hailing Networks: Endogenous Fleets, Behavioral Heterogeneity, and Customer Patience

Jiaxin Hou, Kexin Wang, Ruolin Li, Yafeng Yin, and Jong-Shi Pang

Preprint Preprint · Under review

Realistic Extreme Behavior Generation for Improved AV Testing

Robert Dyro, Matthew Foutter, Ruolin Li, Luigi Di Lillo, Edward Schmerling, Xilin Zhou, and Marco Pavone

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Conference paper

To Stay or to Bypass: Unraveling Mainline Vehicles’ Aggregate Strategic Decision-Making at Highway Weaving Ramps

Haohui He, Kexin Wang, and Ruolin Li

IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC) 2025 Conference paper

A Unified Toll Lane Framework for Autonomous and High-Occupancy Vehicles in Interactive Mixed Autonomy

Ruolin Li, Philip N. Brown, and Roberto Horowitz

arXiv:2403.14011 Preprint

Submodularity of Optimal Sensor Placement Problems for Traffic Networks

Ruolin Li, Negar Mehr, and Roberto Horowitz

2023 · Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 171, 29–43 Journal article

Robotic Manipulation Learning with Equivariant Descriptor Fields: Generative Modeling, Bi-Equivariance, Steerability, and Locality

Jiwoo Kim, Hyunwoo Ryu, Jongeun Choi, Joohwan Seo, Nikhil Potu Surya Prakash, Ruolin Li, and Roberto Horowitz

2023 · RSS Workshop on Symmetries in Robot Learning Workshop paper

Dynamic Routing and Queueing for Human-Driven and Autonomous Vehicles with Responsive Signal Control

Ruolin Li and Roberto Horowitz

2022 · American Control Conference (ACC) Conference paper

Employing Altruistic Vehicles at On-Ramps to Improve the Social Traffic Conditions

Ruolin Li, Philip N. Brown, and Roberto Horowitz

2021 · American Control Conference (ACC) Conference paper

A Highway Toll Lane Framework that Unites Autonomous Vehicles and High-Occupancy Vehicles

Ruolin Li, Philip N. Brown, and Roberto Horowitz

2021 · IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC) Conference paper

A Game Theoretic Macroscopic Model of Lane Choices at Traffic Diverges with Applications to Mixed–Autonomy Networks

Negar Mehr, Ruolin Li, and Roberto Horowitz

2021 · Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 144, 45–59 Journal article

The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles’ Headway on the Social Delay of Traffic Networks

Ruolin Li, Negar Mehr, and Roberto Horowitz

2020 · IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) Conference paper

Improving Urban Traffic Throughput With Vehicle Platooning: Theory and Experiments

Stanley W. Smith, Yeojun Kim, Jacopo Guanetti, Ruolin Li, Roya Firoozi, Bruce Wootton, Alexander A. Kurzhanskiy, Francesco Borrelli, Roberto Horowitz, and Murat Arcak

2020 · IEEE Access, 8, 141208–141223 Journal article

A Game-Theoretic Model for Aggregate Lane Choice Behavior of Highway Mainline Vehicles at the Vicinity of On-Ramps

Ruolin Li, Jiaxi Liu, and Roberto Horowitz

2020 · American Control Conference (ACC), 5376–5381 Conference paper

An Extended Game–Theoretic Model for Aggregate Lane Choice Behavior of Vehicles at Traffic Diverges with a Bifurcating Lane

Ruolin Li, Negar Mehr, and Roberto Horowitz

2019 · IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC) Conference paper

A Game Theoretic Model for Aggregate Bypassing Behavior of Vehicles at Traffic Diverges

Negar Mehr, Ruolin Li, and Roberto Horowitz

2018 · IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), 1968–1973 Conference paper