An Overview of Automated Vehicle Longitudinal Platoon Formation Strategies

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current state of automated vehicle longitudinal platoon formation strategies, discussing their components, advantages, limitations, and future research directions to enhance safety and efficiency.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of AV platooning strategies using a five-component framework, highlighting recent developments and identifying research gaps.

Findings

Analysis of vehicle model and information flow topologies

Evaluation of spacing policies and control strategies

Identification of limitations and future research directions

Abstract

Automated vehicle (AV) platooning has the potential to improve the safety, operational, and energy efficiency of surface transportation systems by limiting or eliminating human involvement in the driving tasks. The theoretical validity of the AV platooning strategies has been established and practical applications are being tested under real-world conditions. The emergence of sensors, communication, and control strategies has resulted in rapid and constant evolution of AV platooning strategies. In this paper, we review the state-of-the-art knowledge in AV longitudinal platoon formation using a five-component platooning framework, which includes vehicle model, information-receiving process, information flow topology, spacing policy, and controller and discuss the advantages and limitations of the components. Based on the discussion about existing strategies and associated limitations, potential future research directions are presented.