A control strategy for merging a single vehicle into a platoon at highway on-ramps

An important topic of research regarding cooperative platoons is merging vehicles into a platoon at highway on-ramps. This paper proposes a control strategy for the merging of a single cooperative automated vehicle into a platoon of vehicles at highway on-ramps. The proposed strategy can handle large differences in initial positions and velocities, sensor noise, and disturbances caused by the platoon leader. Furthermore, the required controller transitions are designed such that the switch between regular platooning and the merging maneuver can easily be made by all vehicles. The proposed strategy is validated using simulations. In the simulation environment communication delays, sensor noise, and disturbances of the platoon leader have been included. The proposed strategy is compared to a traditional strategy and shows a clear improvement in terms of noise handling. Furthermore, the proposed strategy behaves satisfactory considering safety, efficiency, passenger comfort, and disturbance handling.