Fragility of Delay Margin Against Platoon Size in a Connected Vehicle System; Network Design and Multiple Trials

Abstract Linear stability of a car following model is investigated considering time delays due to human reaction times and communication delays. In multiple trials, we generate networks of randomly arranged legacy and autonomous vehicles, each vehicle type respecting some connectivity rules. Next, the largest amount of delay the vehicle network can tolerate without becoming unstable is computed. This delay, also known as the delay margin (DM), can become sensitive with respect to platoon size under certain connectivity rules. We demonstrate this ‘fragility’ property, and next propose a new network-design policy with which DM can be made robust against platoon size.