Framework for Accommodating Emerging Autonomous Vehicles

In the era of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, platooning has the potential to increase roadway capacity and reduce energy consumption. However, vehicles may expend extra energy as they try to form platoons. Also, depending on its position within a platoon, the energy savings of each vehicle can be different. Thus, optimizing and quantifying the savings that may be gained from platooning is challenging. In this project, the authors develop a simulation-optimization framework to tackle the challenge of quantifying energy savings from platooning. The optimization model determines vehicle-to-platoon assignments given the current location, speed, and destination of all the vehicles and platoons on the freeway. The simulation model takes these platooning decisions from the optimization model and implements them. VISSIM is used to simulate the actions taken by all the vehicles and platoons and capture the energy expended by each vehicle over its entire trip duration. The system is simulated with and without platooning to quantify the energy savings. The optimization model is turned off when assessing the system's performance without platooning. In addition to the simulation-optimization framework, an accurate energy consumption model is developed in this project, inspired by Tadakuma and colleagues' work. The energy consumption model utilizes a hybrid prediction formula for aerodynamic drag reduction in multivehicle formations unifying both physical mechanisms and existing empirical study data. The results show that a system-wide savings of about 3% can be realized over 160 kilometers when platoons are formed strategically.

• Record URL:
  • https://cecas.clemson.edu/C2M2/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/C2M2_Final-Report_Platooning_Energy.pdf
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/67656
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Clemson University

  Department of Industrial Engineering
  110 Freeman Hall
  Clemson, SC  United States  29634-0920

  University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

  Department of Industrial Engineering
  Fayetteville, AR  United States  72701

  Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility

  Clemson University
  Clemson, SC  United States  29634

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Eksioglu, Burak
  • 0000-0002-2999-6783
  • Schmid, Matthias Josef Al
  • 0000-0002-5686-7418
  • Huynh, Nathan
  • 0000-0002-4605-5651
  • Comert, Gurcan
  • 0000-0002-2373-5013
  • Liu, Dahui
  • 0000-0002-5062-3148
• Publication Date: 2022-7-17

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 25p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Connected vehicles; Energy consumption; Optimization; Traffic platooning; Traffic simulation
• Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01885142
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747117
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Jun 20 2023 10:05AM