The optimal eco-friendly platoon formation strategy for a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles

Abstract

This paper proposes an eco-friendly platoon formation strategy for a heterogeneous fleet of electric vehicles for a single route. To maximize advantages of platooning including energy saving and CO2 emission reduction, a mathematical model-based optimization technique is used to determine the optimal number and configuration of platoons. The energy savings of each vehicle is different due to its size and the size of adjacent vehicles. For example, even when the size of vehicles in front and behind a vehicle is large, the interior vehicle’s size affects its own energy consumption and the energy saving rate due to the vehicles in front and behind. To observe the energy saving effect of platooning, numerical experiments with heterogeneous sets of vehicles are performed. Since the type of the adjacent vehicle influences the energy saving of each vehicle, it is found that platoon configuration with a bell-shaped pattern is generally effective for energy saving.