Traffic Simulation of Lane-Merging of Autonomous Vehicles in the Context of Platooning

Recent research has shown that by optimizing lane changing maneuvers and making vehicles travel much closer to each other it is possible to achieve a significant reduction in traffic congestion – a severe problem in all major cities. The issue of lane-merging was approached in the context of autonomous vehicles, capable of inter-vehicle communication and grouped into platoons. Solutions based on the use of negotiation techniques were explored by modelling and performing simulations in SUMO (Simulation for Urban Mobility). This paper demonstrates the benefits of the use of platoons in traffic flow, across a range of metrics, and proposes two methods of negotiation for vehicles entering a lane to merge into a platoon.