A fail-operational truck platooning architecture

Truck platooning for which multiple trucks follow at a short distance is considered a near-term truck automation opportunity, with the potential to reduce fuel consumption. Short following distances and increasing automation make it hard for a driver to be the backup if the system fails. The EcoTwin consortium successfully demonstrated a two truck platooning system with trucks following at 20 meters distance at the public road, in which the driver is the backup. The ambition of the consortium is to increase the truck automation and to reduce the following distance, which requires a new fail-operational truck platooning architecture. This paper presents a level 2+ platooning system architecture, which is fail-operational for a single failure, and the corresponding process to obtain it. First insights in the existing two truck platooning system are obtained by analyzing its key aspects, being utilization, latency, reliability, and safety. Using these insights, candidate level 2+ platooning system architectures are defined from which the most suitable truck platooning architecture is selected. Future work is the design and implementation of a prototype, based on the presented level 2+ platooning system architecture.