Development of Autonomous Platooning System for Heavy-duty Trucks

In Japan, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization established the gEnergy ITS projecth in 2008 for reducing CO2 emissions. This project aims to develop techniques for autonomous platooning of heavy-duty trucks and reduce their air resistance in expressway driving. In platooning, the inter-truck distance should remain small and constant. This study proposes a novel control method for platooning of heavy-duty trucks. The proposed method uses information acquired from the front and rear trucks by inter-vehicle communication. String stability is guaranteed on the basis of the Lyapunov stability theory. The experimental results of autonomous platooning are provided to ascertain the effectiveness of the proposed method.