Platoon Formation: Optimized Car to Platoon Assignment Strategies and Protocols

We study the problem of platoon formation, trying to optimize traveling time and fuel consumption based on car-to- platoon assignments. The general concept of platooning, i.e., cars traveling in form of a road train with minimized safety gaps, has been studied in depth and we see first field trials on the road. Currently, most research focuses on improved reliability of the necessary communication protocols to achieve perfect string stability with guaranteed safety measures. One aspect, however, remained quite unexplored: the problem of assigning cars to platoons. Based on the capabilities of individual cars (e.g., max. acceleration or speed) and preferences of the driver (e.g., min/max. traveling speed, preference on travel time vs. fuel consumption), the assignment decision will be different. We formulate an optimization problem and develop a set of protocols (centralized and distributed) to support platoon formation. In an extensive series of simulation experiments, we show that our protocols not just help forming platoons, but also take care of the individual requirements of cars and drivers.