An Efficient Lane Change Maneuver for Platoons of Vehicles in an Automated Highway System

The current lane change maneuver for vehicles in a platoon under the California PATH automated highway system (AHS) architecture is inefficient, because the follower has to split from the rest of the platoon before making a lane change. In this paper, we propose to add a lane change within platoons maneuver that allows a follower to change lanes and be inserted into another platoon directly without splitting either platoon. This maneuver is performed by aligning and locking the longitudinal positions of the two platoons in adjacent lanes. The estimated improvement in the AHS utilization, in term of the space-time, is approximately 4342 m·s. The longitudinal controller for the lane changing follower is designed and proved to maintain the string stability of the platoons. The leader law is modified for the common leader of the two locked platoons. An intra-platoon spacing adjustment procedure is also designed for the purpose of the proposed maneuver. INTRODUCTION In the normal operation mode of the California PATH (Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways) automated highway system (AHS) architecture [1, 2], the control system is built on a hierarchy of five layers, which from the top to the bottom, as shown in Figure 1, are network, link, coordination, regulation, and physical layers. The network and link layers reside on the road side. The ∗Address all correspondences to this author. Vehicle Link