Implementation and Analysis of Platoon Catch-Up Scenarios for Heavy Duty Vehicles
Platooning is a smart way to solve problems such as safety, traffic congestion, fuel consumption and hazardous exhaust emissions since its concept enables several vehicles to drive close to each other while maintaining all the security requisites.
HDV platooning scenarios for scale model trucks were developed in the Smart Mobility Lab, in KTH, Stockholm. A LabVIEW application was developed giving a robust and stable control of the trucks while following and driving on a newly designed and built road network. The trucks are able to follow a predefined trajectory, change lane and road, platoon with each other with different platooning distances, overtake when the platoon master is changed in order to take the lead of the platoon and change speed to catch up, among other features.
The scenarios developed represent several situations of HDV platooning, particularly the platoon catch-up case. The main object of this study was the saved fuel due to platooning, and the break-even point. Using real HDV models and their fuel consumption models, simulations were performed in order to check the benefits of platooning and the data got from the scenarios was analyzed.
Pedro Lima
Pedro Lima's Master's Thesis (pdf 2.6 MB)