Networked control challenges in collaborative road freight transport

Evaluation Approach for a Combined Implementation of Day 1 C-ITS and Truck Platooning

“…Moreover, a great number of studies focusing on the benefits of a Platooning Service Provider can be found, many of which assumes a mean reduction in fuel consumption for the whole platoon. In [14] a 10% reduction is reported for the following vehicle while the reduction for the leading one is neglected; the same value is assumed in [15] and in [16] also for the leading vehicle. In fact, the first truck benefits from the platooning formation as the pressure between itself and the second truck is higher and the engine can expend less energy overcoming this pressure zone (the needed energy is higher for lower pressure values) [17].…”

“…These interactions have a double effect, because they decrease benefits within the platoon and for the participating vehicles, and they also have an impact on the surrounding traffic flow, on its stability and on the driving smoothness, for example. A relevant paper about the formation maneuver is [16], where the automatic formation of vehicle platoons on a Swedish highway is analysed, considering both the coordination strategies and the potential delays caused by the surrounding traffic flow. The paper identifies an optimal point for the merging of two platooning trucks and the point beyond which the platoon formation is no more fuel efficient when compared to the driving alone situation, to account for delays imposed by the surrounding traffic flow.…”

Application of Predictor Feedback to Compensate Time Delays in Connected Cruise Control

“…Note, however, that the leader's velocity is predicted by (45) even for τ (k) = 1, so there is a possibility to improve string stability properties even when no packets are lost. The method (45)- (46) to predict the leader's velocity and the headway is illustrated in Fig. 6 for the special case m = 1, w 1 = 1, τ 1 (k) = 4, that is, when the predictor relies on the data obtained 4 sampling periods earlier.…”

“…Note that any other monotonous and sufficiently smooth function F(h) could be used as well. Besides, other range policies also exist, see [23], [34], [44]- [46]. When the leader's velocity exceeds the maximum speed v max allowed by road traffic regulations, we switch off the connected cruise control.…”

“…This way, the controller assumes that the leader's velocity does not change during packet losses, and the distance that the leader travels is computed accordingly. The headway is predicted by (46) by adding the difference of the distances that the leader and the follower travel during packet losses to the last available headway data; see the shaded areas and the solid arrows in Fig. 6(a,b,c).…”