Implementing control algorithms for platooning based on V2V communication

Platooning allows vehicles to drive in close longitudinal convoys to mitigate traffic congestion. With fully autonomous systems, the drivers would become passengers in their own cars and they would have more time to focus on other tasks than driving. With vehicle-to-vehicle communication small inter-vehicle distances can be achieved and energy can be saved. In 2011, the two organizations High Tech Automotive Systems and TNO are hosting a competition in platooning called Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC), where eleven teams will compete in a set of predefined traffic scenarios. KTH and Scania are collaborating in a project called Scoop to participate in GCDC with a Scania truck. The team consists of 12 members, where 7 are master’s students. The task in this thesis is to develop a framework for implementing control strategies within the Scoop project. To control the speed of the truck, the controllers will ask for an acceleration which will then be sent to either the engine or the brakes. The controllers are designed by another master’s student, but which controller to use at a certain point in time is decided in this thesis. To limit the scenarios that might occur, the system is only able to use up to three vehicles ahead as reference: the two vehicles directly ahead, and the platoon leader. This limitation was made because a certain scenario requires a certain controller configuration. Before the entire Cooperative Driving System (CDS) – developed by Scoop – was finished, the tests had to be carried out with a standalone software developed in this thesis. It simulates a platoon of three vehicles ahead of the real truck and packages all the information in the same way that the CDS will do before sending it to the control unit. Results show that the framework behaves as intended. It manages to join and split a platoon and also select the correct controller configuration depending on the current conditions.