Analysis of a Stochastic Model for Coordinated Platooning of Heavy-duty Vehicles

Platooning of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) is a key component of smart and connected highways and is expected to bring remarkable fuel savings and emission reduction. In this paper, we study the coordination of HDV platooning on a highway section. We model the arrival of HDVs as a Poisson process. Multiple HDVs are merged into one platoon if their headways are below a given threshold. The merging is done by accelerating the following vehicles to catch up with the leading ones. We characterize the following random variables: (i) platoon size, (ii) headway between platoons, and (iii) travel time increment due to platoon formation. We formulate and solve an optimization problem to determine the headway threshold for platooning that leads to minimal cost (time plus fuel). We also compare our results with that from Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO).