A Hierarchical State-Machine-Based Framework for Platoon Manoeuvre Descriptions

Abstract

This paper introduces the a framework that simplifies the process of designing and describing autonomous vehicle platooning manoeuvres which implements four design principles: Standardisation, Encapsulation, Abstraction, and Decoupling (SEAD). Although a large body of research has been formulating platooning manoeuvres, it is still challenging to design, describe, read, and understand them. This difficulty largely arises from missing formalisation. To fill this gap, we analysed existing ways of describing manoeuvres, derived the causes of difficulty, and designed a framework that simplifies the manoeuvre design process. Alongside, a Manoeuvre Design Language was developed to structurally describe manoeuvres in a machine-readable format. Unlike state-of-the-art manoeuvre descriptions that require one state machine for every participating vehicle, the SEAD framework allows describing any manoeuvre from the single perspective of the platoon leader. We hope that the SEAD framework will pave the way for further research in the area of new manoeuvre design and optimisation by largely simplifying and unifying platooning manoeuvre representation.

Keywords

• Autonomous vehicles
• platoon manoeuvres
• AHS
• mixed traffic simulation