Evaluating the Handling of New Assignments in a Global Truck Platooning System Using Large-Scale Simulations

Sammanfattning: Truck transportation is a big part of goods transportation aroundthe world, with over 100,000 trucks per day in Sweden alone. By usingadaptive cruise control, trucks can drive very close together in aplatoon. Driving close together leads to a signicant reduction in airresistance, which in turn results in lower fuel consumption. This thesisinvestigates a global coordination system that trucks can registerwith, which will plan how all the trucks should drive. This systemthen has to regularly change the speed proles of individual trucksthroughout the system to automatically have them form 'platoons' sothat they can save as much fuel as possible.This thesis specically investigates what happens when a new truckassignment is registered with the system. When this happens, the systemshould take this into consideration and change the truck platoons.This might mean breaking up existing platoon or forming new ones.This has to be done regularly in an ecient manner as more and moreassignments are added to the system. To investigate the fuel savingsof this system, a simulation engine was created. Dierent parameters,such as update frequency and the time in advance that the system isinformed of new assignments, are evaluated to see how they impactthe result. In simulations of 5,000 trucks in one day, the coordinationsystem was able to accomplish a reduction in fuel consumptionof around 7%.