Stable and Fair Benefit Allocation in Mixed-Energy Truck Platooning: A Coalitional Game Approach

TL;DR

This paper proposes a coalitional game framework for fair and stable benefit allocation among mixed-energy trucks in platoons, ensuring energy savings are equitably shared and stability is maintained.

Contribution

It introduces a novel stable and fair payoff allocation scheme for mixed-energy truck platoons using core stability and Shapley value concepts, with computational efficiency and practical applicability.

Findings

The proposed allocation scheme is both stable and fair under certain conditions.

The Shapley value-based allocation is computationally efficient and independent of platoon size.

Numerical results confirm the framework's effectiveness in promoting stable and equitable cooperation.

Abstract

This paper addresses the benefit allocation in a mixed-energy truck platoon composed of fuel-powered and electric trucks. The interactions among trucks during platoon formation are modeled as a coalitional game with transferable utility. We first design a stable payoff allocation scheme that accounts for truck heterogeneity in energy savings and platoon roles (leader or follower), establishing core-stability conditions to ensure that no subset of trucks has an incentive to deviate for greater benefit. To enhance payoff fairness, we then propose a closed-form, Shapley value-based allocation approach that is computationally efficient and independent of the platoon size. Sufficient conditions under which the allocation is both fair and core-stable are provided. In scenarios where the Shapley value falls outside the core, we develop an alternative allocation based on the stable payoff that minimizes the mean relative deviation from the Shapley value while preserving core stability. This deviation is further proved to be upper-bounded by $1$, showing a favorable trade-off between stability and fairness. Finally, extensive numerical studies validate the theoretical results and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in facilitating stable, equitable, and sustainable cooperation in mixed-energy truck platooning.