Optimal Cooperative Platooning Using Micro-Transactions

Sammanfattning: The urge to consume does not seem to stop, thus, the need for transportation of goods will most likely not decrease. At the same time jurisdictions and regulations around greenhouse gas emissions are sharpening and pushing the industry towards a more environmentally friendly state. The freight and transportation industry is facing a huge challenge in the upcoming years and solutions are needed to feed the demand of society. Two, of many, proposals of solving, at least, parts of the above mentioned problem is platooning and the look-ahead controller. Platooning denotes the concept of slipstream where maximum utilization of aerodynamic drag reduction is endeavoured. The lookahead controller exploits the surrounding topographical information in order to yield an optimal driving strategy, often resulting in that the vehicle initiates the phenomenon of pulse and glide, which denotes alternating between high load operation points and freewheeling, i.e. engaging neutral gear. This work has sought to investigate these concepts to determine whether or not additional fuel-efficiency can be added by manipulating and re-designing the control unit of the system. The proposed addition is built upon the look-ahead controller and supplements it by enabling communication between vehicles such that micro-transactions may occur in order to aid decision making regarding the choice of driving strategies. A vehicle model, a platoon model and the novel optimization based look-ahead-controller was synthesized and developed, where dynamic programming was used as the optimization solver of the controller. The look-ahead controller was verified such that one can conclude that it behaves according to the assumptions of such a system. The proposed micro-transaction system was also verified to conclude that it behaves as assumed, yielding a reduction in fuel consumption. For a platoon of two members, a 1.2% and 1.7% reduction in fuel consumption for the leading and following vehicle respectively was obtained, compared to an identical platooning setup, using a lookahead controller, but where no negotiations using micro-transactions are allowed between the vehicles.