A Novel Graph and Safety Potential Field Theory-Based Vehicle Platoon Formation and Optimization Method

Abstract

Platooning is considered to be a very effective method for improving traffic efficiency, traffic safety and fuel economy under the connected and automated environment. The prerequisite for realizing these advantages is how to form a platoon without any collisions and how to maintain and optimize the car-following behavior after platoon formation. However, most of the existing studies focus on the platoon configuration and information transmission method, while only a few attempt to address the issue of platoon formation and optimization methods. To this end, this study proposes a novel platoon formation and optimization model combining graph theory and safety potential field (G-SPF) theory for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) under different vehicle distributions. Compared to previous studies, we innovatively incorporate the concept of the safety potential field to better describe the actual driving risk of vehicles and ensure their absolute safety. A four-step platoon formation and optimization strategy is developed to achieve platoon preliminary formation and platoon driving optimization control. Three traffic scenarios with different CAVs distributions are designed to verify the effectiveness of our proposed platoon formation method based on G-SPF theory, and the simulation results indicate that a collision-free platoon can be formed in a short time. Additionally, the G-SPF-based platoon driving optimization control method is demonstrated by comparing it with two typical control strategies. Compared with the constant spacing and constant time headway control strategies, the simulation results show that our proposed method can improve the traffic capacity by approximately 48.8% and 26.6%, respectively.

Aerodynamic optimization of mixed platoon Ahmed body vehicles based on response surface method

“…Vehicle platooning is an effective way to address vehicle congestion and improve traffic efficiency (Amini et al , 2020; Khattak et al , 2022). Therefore, as connected and automated vehicles gradually mature, research on vehicle fleet formation methods and driving optimization will continue to be a research hotspot (He and Lu, 2014; Li et al , 2021). Fleet formation design includes alignment, speed of driving and spacing between vehicles.…”

Improving the Safe Operation of Platoon Lane Changing for Connected Automated Vehicles: A Novel Field-Driven Approach

“…Kim [3] presented a novel approach for the longitudinal control of a truck platoon as the trucks move along a curved lane, as well as a straight line. Li et al [4] proposed a novel platoon formation and optimization model by combining graph theory and safety potential field theory for CAVs under different vehicle distributions. However, to a certain extent, it is necessary to realize the large-scale horizontal and lane-changing maneuvers of a fully autonomous self-driving platoon [5].…”