A flock-like two-dimensional cooperative vehicle formation model based on potential functions
Ruochen Hao (TU Delft - Transport and Planning, Tongji University)
M. Liu (TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
Wanjing Ma (Tongji University)
Bart Arem (TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
Meng Wang (Technische Universität Dresden, TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Due to the manoeuvre complexity, models describing the platoon formation process on urban roads are lacking in the literature. Inspired by flocking behaviours in nature, we proposed a two-dimensional model to describe connected automated vehicle (CAV) group dynamics based on the potential theory, which is composed of the elastic potential energy for the inter-vehicle spring-mass system and the cross-section artificial potential field. The inter-vehicle elastic potential energy enables CAVs to attract each other at long distances, and repel each other otherwise. It also generates incentives for lane changes. The cross-section artificial potential field is able to mimic the lane-keeping behaviour and creates resistance to avoid unnecessary lane changes at very low incentives. These modelling principles can also be applied to human-driven vehicles in a mixed traffic environment. The behavioural plausibility of the model is demonstrated analytically and further verified in a simulation of typical driving scenarios.
help_outline