A Simulation Platform for Autonomous Heavy-duty Vehicle Platooning in Mixed Traffic

Autonomous platooning of heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) using cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) on highway is a promising method for improving transport and energy efficiency. This approach has recently attracted extensive attention from vehicle industry, transport authority and researchers. One essential hypothesis for implementing HDV platooning is that it will bring about benefits to overall traffic system, such as expansion of road capacity, energy saving and emission reduction etc. However, little research effort has been found to quantify the impacts of HDV platoons on real traffic. Based on an existing microscopic traffic simulation environment, this paper initializes a simulation platform with detailed modeling of HDV platoon and operation enabled by CACC. The fuel consumption is also estimated for each simulation step using an analytical fuel consumption model. This platform makes it possible to quantify the impacts of HDV platoons in mixed traffic in terms of traffic flow characteristics, highway capacity, fuel efficiency and safety by microscopic simulation. In the computational experiment, the impacts of HDV platoon with different penetration rates are investigated. The simulation results show that autonomous platooning of HDVs, especially when the HDV penetration rate is higher than 40%, can gain substantial fuel saving while preserving generally positive impacts on overall traffic.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AT060 Trucking Industry Research.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Deng, Qichen
  • Ma, Xiaoliang
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous intelligent cruise control; Energy consumption; Fuel consumption; Heavy duty vehicles; Microscopic traffic flow; Traffic platooning; Traffic simulation; Vehicle mix
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cooperative adaptive cruise control
• Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Motor Carriers; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I73: Traffic Control; I90: Vehicles;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01555188
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-2769
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 26 2015 10:03AM