Authors:
Youssef Bichiou
1
;
Hesham Rakha
1
;
2
and
Hossam M. Abdelghaffar
1
;
3
Affiliations:
1
Center for Sustainable Mobility, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, U.S.A.
;
2
Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, U.S.A.
;
3
Department of Computer Engineering and Systems, Engineering Faculty, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
Keyword(s):
Connected and Automated Vehicles, Platooning, Fleet Control.
Abstract:
One of the key priorities of technologies is performance. In the area of transportation, performance is typically intertwined with increased mobility and reduced costs. Congestion alleviation which is a persistent challenge faced by many cities is a priority. The use of infrastructure is inherently inefficient, resulting in higher vehicle fuel consumption and pollution. This in turn burdens commuters and businesses. Therefore, solving this issue is of prime significance because of the potential benefit. Many technologies have been and are being developed. These include adaptive traffic signals and various dynamic traffic control strategies. This paper introduces a platooning controller that keeps relatively small time gaps between consecutive vehicles to increase mobility, and eventually reduce travel costs. This controller also accounts for complex dynamic and kinematic restrictions controlling vehicle motion. The controller is tested in a virtual environment on highways in downtown
Los Angeles. A drop-in travel time, delay, fuel consumption was observed across the area for connected automated vehicles (CAVs) and non-connected vehicles, at various market penetration rates (MPRs). Reductions of up to 5%, 9.4%, and 8.17% in travel time, delay, and fuel consumption, respectively are observed. These observations are observed for all vehicles platooned and non-platooned.
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