Cooperative vehicle path generation during merging using model predictive control with real-time optimization

Author-Highlights•A cooperative merging path generation method for vehicles to merge smoothly on the motorway using model predictive control is proposed.•The path generation method optimizes the motions of the relevant vehicles simultaneously.•A state variable related to the merging path is introduced to the optimization problem, so that the merging path and the merging point of the merging vehicle can be optimized according to the motion of the main lane vehicle.•A new state variable is introduced to optimize the merging path and the merging point according to the motion of the main lane vehicle.

This paper proposed a cooperative merging path generation method for vehicles to merge smoothly on the motorway using a Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme which optimizes the motions of the relevant vehicles simultaneously. The cooperative merging is a merging in where the most relevant vehicle in the main lane would accelerate or decelerate slightly to let the merging vehicle merge in easily. The proposed path generation algorithm can generate the merging path ensuring the merging vehicle can access the whole acceleration area, and do not exceed it. We have introduced a state variable to the optimization problem by which the merging point for the merging vehicle is optimized. The simulation results showed that the cooperative merging path can be successfully generated under some typical traffic situations without re-adjustment of the optimization parameters.