Coordination of Heavy-duty Vehicle Platoons in Real Traffic

Important results from the project

The goal of this project is to include the interference of other traffic in the development of HDV platoon coordination strategies. Meanwhile, the project investigates the potential impacts of platoons on other traffic concerning energy efficiency, mobility etc. These goals have been met. Platoon coordination strategies and algorithms are developed for rerouting vehicles, adapting departure times and adjusting speed profiles. A traffic simulation model is developed to evaluate the platoon coordination and control strategies as well as the impacts of platoons on other traffic.

Expected long term effects

The results from the project contribute to the development of coordination and control strategies for heavy-duty vehicle platoons in traffic. The project has developed and tested a number of strategies for platoon formation, scheduling and control. A traffic simulation model has been developed for evaluation of some strategies in real conditions. They are also tested in experiment on E4 motorway. The simulation model has also bee used to evaluate the impacts of platoons on normal traffic. All scientific results have been presented at seminars, workshops, meetings and conferences.

Approach and implementation

The project consisted of six work packages (WP), which requires analytical formulation of platoon coordination and control strategies, technical development of a simulation model and evaluation of the strategies and their impacts using the simulation model. WP1 and WP3 focus on formulating platoon coordination and control strategies. WP 2 develops the simulation model. WP4 and WP6 apply the simulation model to evaluate the impacts of platoon on other traffic and interpret them using social economic terms. WP5 investigates the service model for platoon coordination.