Experimental verification of vehicle platoon control algorithms

Abstract

Organizing a group of vehicles into a vehicle platoon in a way that, except for the leading vehicle, each platoon member can be autonomously driven has been a research goal for decades. Among other benefits this results in a decrease of fuel consumption and also in the driver's workload and an increase in a better use of road capacity. The recent developments in the area of active control systems for vehicles make it possible to realize more and more autonomous functions and the above defined cooperation between vehicles seems to be increasingly feasible. This article aims to point out that today it is possible to reach this goal without vehicle specific software and hardware.