Cooperative driving of autonomous vehicles based on localization, inter-vehicle communications and vision systems

Abstract

This paper deals with algorithms for cooperative driving or flexible platooning of autonomous vehicles and experimental results on a test track. The cooperative driving, aiming at compatibility of safety and efficiency of road traffic, here implies the autonomous vehicles take such a formation as platooning including lane changing, overtaking, cutting-in, merging, and transitions between them. Each vehicle is equipped with a machine vision system for preceding vehicle detection, a laser radar for inter-vehicle gap measurement, the DGPS and the inter-vehicle communication function. The lateral control algorithm uses the DGPS localization data and maps. The longitudinal control algorithm is based on PD control with the inter-vehicle gap measurement. The autonomous vehicles drive with the headway of about 12 m at 40 km/h on a test track, while the following vehicle traces the same trajectory of the preceding one when not only lane following but also lane changing.