A New Method for Reconfiguring Vehicle Platoon

Abstract

Multiple vehicles make a line in platooning. Also information about driving operations is shared in the vehicles and the vehicles perform same actions. An ordinary driver controls the front vehicle in platooning. Information of driving operations by the ordinary driver is transmitted to following vehicles. Then auto-driving in following vehicles becomes possible. Recently, working long hours and shortage of manpower become big issues in the logistics industry. Platooning could solve these issues. In platooning, the second and subsequent vehicles are driven by automatic driving. The load on the drivers of the second and subsequent vehicles can be reduced. It is also expected that platooning reduces traffic congestion and carbon dioxide emissions. Currently, a platoon can be formed in a restriction where vehicles that have been set in advance only can join the platoon. In order to resolve the restriction, this paper proposes a new method for reconfiguring vehicle platoon in motion, which consists of four functions– forming a new platoon, platoon merging, dividing a platoon, and seceding from a platoon. Then, this paper shows simulation results to clarify what traffic situations where the proposed method could work well or not are.