Experimental Demonstration of Platoon Formation Using a Cooperative Merging Controller

Road safety and traffic congestion are amongst the main challenges in current transportation systems. Literature shows that these challenges can be tackled using cooperative platoons, which is a technique in which vehicles use communication to drive closely behind each other in a string. An importan...

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Main Authors: Wouter Scholte, Tom van der Sande, Peter Zegelaar, Henk Nijmeijer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10891586/
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author Wouter Scholte
Tom van der Sande
Peter Zegelaar
Henk Nijmeijer
author_facet Wouter Scholte
Tom van der Sande
Peter Zegelaar
Henk Nijmeijer
author_sort Wouter Scholte
collection DOAJ
description Road safety and traffic congestion are amongst the main challenges in current transportation systems. Literature shows that these challenges can be tackled using cooperative platoons, which is a technique in which vehicles use communication to drive closely behind each other in a string. An important topic of research regarding cooperative platoons is merging vehicles into a platoon at highway on-ramps. In previous work, the authors proposed a control strategy for the merging of a single cooperative automated vehicle into a platoon of vehicles at highway on-ramps. In this paper, the performance of this controller is demonstrated using experiments with two full-scale vehicles. During these experiments a two-vehicle platoon is formed in a limited distance. Several scenarios with different trajectories of the preceding vehicle are investigated. The preceding vehicle can be accelerating or decelerating simulating disturbances encountered in a larger platoon. In all experiments, the maneuver is successfully executed. The results of these experiments show the large potential of the proposed merging controller.
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spelling doaj-art-5a93c3c97fdc44578e6fb5bb5fabdbc62025-08-20T03:00:02ZengIEEEIEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems2687-78132025-01-01613114310.1109/OJITS.2025.354219310891586Experimental Demonstration of Platoon Formation Using a Cooperative Merging ControllerWouter Scholte0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4906-9853Tom van der Sande1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8400-8058Peter Zegelaar2https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5759-3816Henk Nijmeijer3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-6191Mechanical Engineering Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The NetherlandsResearch and Advanced Engineering Europe, Ford Motor Company, Aachen, GermanyMechanical Engineering Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The NetherlandsMechanical Engineering Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The NetherlandsRoad safety and traffic congestion are amongst the main challenges in current transportation systems. Literature shows that these challenges can be tackled using cooperative platoons, which is a technique in which vehicles use communication to drive closely behind each other in a string. An important topic of research regarding cooperative platoons is merging vehicles into a platoon at highway on-ramps. In previous work, the authors proposed a control strategy for the merging of a single cooperative automated vehicle into a platoon of vehicles at highway on-ramps. In this paper, the performance of this controller is demonstrated using experiments with two full-scale vehicles. During these experiments a two-vehicle platoon is formed in a limited distance. Several scenarios with different trajectories of the preceding vehicle are investigated. The preceding vehicle can be accelerating or decelerating simulating disturbances encountered in a larger platoon. In all experiments, the maneuver is successfully executed. The results of these experiments show the large potential of the proposed merging controller.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10891586/Connected and automated vehicleson-ramp mergingexperimental validationvehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communicationautonomous vehicles
spellingShingle Wouter Scholte
Tom van der Sande
Peter Zegelaar
Henk Nijmeijer
Experimental Demonstration of Platoon Formation Using a Cooperative Merging Controller
IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems
Connected and automated vehicles
on-ramp merging
experimental validation
vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication
autonomous vehicles
title Experimental Demonstration of Platoon Formation Using a Cooperative Merging Controller
title_full Experimental Demonstration of Platoon Formation Using a Cooperative Merging Controller
title_fullStr Experimental Demonstration of Platoon Formation Using a Cooperative Merging Controller
title_full_unstemmed Experimental Demonstration of Platoon Formation Using a Cooperative Merging Controller
title_short Experimental Demonstration of Platoon Formation Using a Cooperative Merging Controller
title_sort experimental demonstration of platoon formation using a cooperative merging controller
topic Connected and automated vehicles
on-ramp merging
experimental validation
vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication
autonomous vehicles
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10891586/
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AT tomvandersande experimentaldemonstrationofplatoonformationusingacooperativemergingcontroller
AT peterzegelaar experimentaldemonstrationofplatoonformationusingacooperativemergingcontroller
AT henknijmeijer experimentaldemonstrationofplatoonformationusingacooperativemergingcontroller