Study and evaluation of laser-based perception and light communication for a platoon of autonomous vehicles

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a new emerging technology that is being proposed as a reliable and supportive choice for short range communications in ITS. On the same context, Laser Range Finders (LRF) sensors are used for the vehicular environment perception. Compared to VLC, LRF can provide more coverage range and extended viewing angle. To take the full advantages of both technologies features, this paper studies and demonstrate the proposal of using VLC for information exchange among the platoon members and LRF for inter-vehicle distance estimation. A hand-over algorithm is proposed to manage the switching process for any failure occurrence by assessing LRF and VLC performance using three different metrics: LRF confidence value, vehicles angular orientation, and the VLC link latency. The evaluation of the proposed system is verified using VLC prototype and Pro- SiVIC Simulator driving platoon of two autonomous vehicles over different curvature scenarios. Our results show that the proposed combination are extending the VLC limitations and satisfying the platooning requirement. However, in the very sharp curvature, LRF was capable of driving the platoon except for the 90° curve scenario, the system experienced non-stable behaviour due to the LRF area of interest limitation.