Title: Platooning over packet-dropping links

Authors: S. Seshadhri, R. Ayyagari

Addresses: Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology-Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli 620015, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology-Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli 620015, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Automated Highway Systems (AHSs) used for eliminating highway congestion in urban areas, require platooning of vehicles. Platooning usually involves communication channels among the vehicles in a platoon and as well as the platoons. One major challenge in the implementation of platoons is the packet dropouts in the communication channels, as they affect the rigidity of the platoon. In our investigations, we first show that the rigidity of the platoon is lost in the presence of packet losses. Later, we propose an estimation based platooning algorithm for vehicles connected using communication links with random packet dropouts. We also examine the problem of minimal channel utilisation by employing the estimate. Furthermore, we explore the data that is to be transmitted given that a packet dropout has occurred. The obtained results are illustrated using simulations conducted on a platoon of holonomic point vehicles.

Keywords: AHSs; automated highway systems; vehicle platooning; packet dropouts; optimal channel utilisation; BLUE; best linear unbiased estimator; traffic congestion; urban areas; platoons; communication channels; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVAS.2011.038179

International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems, 2011 Vol.9 No.1/2, pp.46 - 62

Published online: 10 Apr 2015 *

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