Vehicle Velocity Control in Case of Vehicle Platoon Merging

In the vehicle platoon, vehicles travel in the row at very short vehicle head distance by the help of the mechanical and the electric systems. The platoon is very important technique for increasing the road traffic capacity safely. The previous studies focus on the safe and stable control of the vehicle platoon. The next aim in the vehicle platoon, however, is the vehicle control of the vehicle platoon in some actual traffic cases. Merging vehicle platoons at the intersection is considered as one of the actual traffic cases in this study. Then, the aim of this study is to discuss the velocity control of the vehicles in the platoon. The velocity control model is defined as the function of the head distance and the velocity difference. The model parameters are determined by stability analysis of the velocity control model. The validity of the model is discussed in the computer simulation and the experiment of LEGO MINDSTORM NXT.