Platoon Transitional Maneuver Control System: A Review

Connectivity and autonomy are considered two of the most promising technologies to improve mobility, fuel consumption, travel time, and traffic safety in the automated transportation industry. These benefits can be realized through vehicle platooning. A vehicle platoon is composed of a group of connected automated vehicles (CAVs) traveling together at consensual speed, following the leading vehicle (leader) while maintaining a prespecified inter-vehicle distance. This paper reviews the different existing control techniques associated with the transitional platoon maneuvers such as merge/split and lane change. Different longitudinal and lateral vehicle dynamics that are mainly used in the transitional platoon maneuvers are discussed. The most used control algorithms for both longitudinal and lateral control used for transitional platoon maneuvers are reviewed and the advantages and limitations of each control strategy are discussed. The most recent articles on platoon control maneuvers have been analyzed based on the proposed control algorithm, homogeneously or heterogeneously of platoon members, type of platoon maneuver, the aim of control problem, type of implementation, and used simulation tools. This paper also discusses different trajectory planning techniques used in lateral motion control and studies the most recent research related to trajectory planning for automated vehicles and summarizes them based on the used trajectory planning technique, platoon or/and lane change, the type of traffic, and the cost functions. Finally, this paper explores the open issues and directions for future research.