Optimization Design of the Decentralized Multi-Vehicle Cooperative Controller for Freeway Ramp Entrance

This research presents a multi-vehicle control strategy combining the merging control and platoon control to deal with the merging scenario in the freeway ramp entrance. In the merging controller, a selection algorithm is presented firstly to determine the merging sequence based on the initial states of the vehicles in the cooperative area. Subsequently, the optimized longitudinal trajectory of the facilitating vehicle and on-ramp vehicle is addressed by solving the Hamiltonian function. As for the platoon controller, string stability is analyzed to attenuate the impact of merging on the mainline traffic, considering the influence of communication time delay. Smooth mode switching is achieved by introducing the tracking policy of platoon controller to determine the terminal states of the facilitating vehicle. The proposed strategy is simulated at two typical merging scenarios, where two on-ramp vehicles attempt to cut into a six-vehicular platoon, to validate its feasibility and advantage.