A decentralized approach to collaborative driving coordination

Abstract

Collaborative driving is an important subcomponent of intelligent transportation systems ITS as it strives to create autonomous vehicles that are able to cooperate in order to navigate through urban traffic by using communications. We address this problematic using a platoon of cars considered as a multiagent system. To do that, we propose a hierarchical architecture based on three layers (guidance, management, traffic control), which can be used to develop centralized platoons (where a head vehicle-agent coordinates other vehicle-agents by applying coordination rules) and decentralized platoons (where the platoon is considered as a team of vehicle-agents maintaining the platoon together). We propose the model of teamwork used in multiagent systems as a decentralized alternative to previous coordination centralized on the platoon's leader and outline its benefits using collaborative driving simulation scenarios.