Vehicle Platooning Systems: Review, Classification and Validation Strategies

The increase in vehicle numbers has resulted in the growth of traffic jams in cities and highways, thereby raising various issues on fuel consumption, environmental pollution, and traffic safety [1]. Platooning is an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) [2] application which has emerged as a promising solution for the traffic management in highways. The main idea of vehicle platooning suggests that a set of vehicles travel together while maintaining a small distance between each other. This can lead to an increase in traffic capacity and then an improved traffic management and a reduced travel time. Moreover, the comfort and the safety of passengers are enhanced since the scenarios of extreme acceleration or deceleration are eliminated and the platoon vehicles are considered as a single unit. Furthermore, the emission performance and the fuel economy are significantly improved. A vehicle platoon (also called “convoy”) can be seen as a group of vehicles that travel in close coordination through a headway control mechanism. These vehicles maintain a short spacing between them and a relative velocity. The vehicle in the front position, called leader, represents the trajectory and velocity reference. It controls all the following vehicles in the platoon. Each vehicle of the platoon receives orders from the leader that may be communicated either directly or by the preceding vehicle.