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

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. (C) 2001 Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. and Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.