Large-Scale Vehicle Platooning: Advances and Challenges in Scheduling and Planning Techniques

Abstract

Through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, autonomizing a vehicle platoon can significantly reduce the distance between vehicles, thereby reducing air resistance and improving road traffic efficiency. The gradual maturation of platoon control technology is enabling vehicle platoons to achieve basic driving functions, thereby permitting large-scale vehicle platoon scheduling and planning, which is essential for industrialized platoon applications and generates significant economic benefits. Scheduling and planning are required in many aspects of vehicle platoon operation; here, we outline the advantages and challenges of a number of the most important applications, including platoon formation scheduling, lane-change planning, passing traffic light scheduling, and vehicle resource allocation. This paper’s primary objective is to integrate current independent platoon scheduling and planning techniques into an integrated architecture to meet the demands of large-scale platoon applications. To this end, we first summarize the general techniques of vehicle platoon scheduling and planning, then list the primary scenarios for scheduling and planning technique application, and finally discuss current challenges and future development trends in platoon scheduling and planning. We hope that this paper can encourage related platoon researchers to conduct more systematic research and integrate multiple platoon scheduling and planning technologies and applications.

Keywords

• Autonomous vehicle platoon
• Autonomous driving
• Connected and automated vehicles
• Scheduling and planning techniques