Journal Article

A Collaborative Merging Method for Connected and Automated Vehicle Platoons in a Freeway Merging Area with Considerations for Safety and Efficiency

Gao, Huan, Liu, Bo, Liu, Hongben, Cen, Yanqing, Song, Xianghui, Liu, Jia

2023

Overview

To solve the problems of congestion and accident risk when multiple vehicles merge into the merging area of a freeway, a platoon split collaborative merging (PSCM) method was proposed for an on-ramp connected and automated vehicle (CAV) platoon under a mixed traffic environment composed of human-driving vehicles (HDV) and CAVs. The PSCM method mainly includes two parts: merging vehicle motion control and merging effect evaluation. Firstly, the collision avoidance constraints of merging vehicles were analyzed, and on this basis, a following–merging motion rule was proposed. Then, considering the feasibility of and constraints on the stability of traffic flow during merging, a performance measurement function with safety and merging efficiency as optimization objectives was established to screen for the optimal splitting strategy. Simulation experiments under traffic demand of 1500 pcu/h/lane and CAV ratios of 30%, 50%, and 70% were conducted respectively. It was shown that under the 50% CAV ratio, the average travel time of the on-ramp CAV platoon was reduced by 50.7% under the optimal platoon split strategy compared with the no-split control strategy. In addition, the average travel time of main road vehicles was reduced by 27.9%. Thus, the proposed PSCM method is suitable for the merging control of on-ramp CAV platoons under the condition of heavy main road traffic demand.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: Collaboration / collaborative merging strategy / connected and automated vehicle (CAV) / Energy consumption / freeway merging area / freeway ramp / mixed traffic flow / road safety and efficiency / Roads & highways / Sensors / Velocity