Platoon Vehicles

Challenge

This client wanted to prove the hypothesis that using an automated high-quality car as the leader of a platoon of other automated cars in a highway is better in terms of safety and speed compared to using a manual truck or bus driven by a human as the leader.

Solution

In AnyLogic, the Road Traffic Library is generally used to model vehicles on a road, but it is not possible to use platoons since we have no control over the AI of the cars. We had to use the Process Modeling Library / Agent-Based hybrid to create this. A 2-mile road was created with several obstacles in between (rain, holes, accidents, hazards, and moving entities crossing the road), and according to the characteristics of the leader (sensors, sonars, passengers, etc.) the platoon would resolve the obstacles in different ways by reducing the speed, detecting the obstacle from a long distance, or making a full stop.

Outcome

The conclusion was that the automated car was better in terms of safety (faster stop, better understanding of road obstacles) and speed (completed the 2 miles faster) than the bus or truck driven by a human, confirming the hypothesis of the client.

Project Features

• Industry: Traffic, Platoon
• Model: Discrete Events, Agent-Based
• Duration: 1 week