Vehicle platooning has become important for the vehicle industry. Yet conclusive results with respect to the fuel reduction possibilities of platooning remain unclear. The focus in this study is the fuel reduction that heavy duty vehicle platooning enables and the analysis with respect to the influence of a commercial adaptive cruise control on the fuel consumption. Experimental results show that by using preview information of the road ahead from the lead vehicle, the adaptive cruise controller can reduce the fuel consumption. A study is undertaken for various masses of the lead vehicle. The results show that the best choice with respect to a heavier or lighter lead vehicle depends on the desired time gap. A maximum fuel reduction of 4.7-7.7% depending on the time gap, at a set speed of 70 km/h, can be obtained with two identical trucks. If the lead vehicle is 10 t lighter a corresponding 3.8-7.4% fuel reduction can be obtained depending on the time gap. Similarly if the lead vehicle is 10 t heavier a 4.3-6.9% fuel reduction can be obtained. All results indicate that a maximum fuel reduction can be achieved at a short relative distance, due to both air drag reduction and suitable control.© 2010 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.QC 2012021

Abstract-Freight transportation is of outmost importance for our society and is continuously increasing. At the same time, transporting goods on roads accounts for about 26% of all energy consumption and 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union. Despite the influence the transportation system has on our energy consumption and the environment, road transportation is mainly done by individual long-haulage trucks with no real-time coordination or global optimization. In this paper, we review how modern information and communication technology supports a cyber-physical transportation system architecture with an integrated logistic system coordinating fleets of trucks traveling together in vehicle platoons. From the reduced air drag, platooning trucks traveling close together can save about 10% of their fuel consumption. Utilizing road grade information and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, a safe and fuel-optimized cooperative look-ahead control strategy is implemented on top of the existing cruise controller. By optimizing the interaction between vehicles and platoons of vehicles, it is shown that significant improvements can be achieved. An integrated transport planning and vehicle routing in the fleet management system allows both small and large fleet owners to benefit from the collaboration. A realistic case study with 200 heavy-duty vehicles performing transportation tasks in Sweden is described. Simulations show overall fuel savings at more than 5% thanks to coordinated platoon planning. It is also illustrated how well the proposed cooperative look-ahead controller for heavy-duty vehicle platoons manages to optimize the velocity profiles of the vehicles over a hilly segment of the considered road network.

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