Platoon Acceleration Gain Control for Cargo-Sensitive Curve Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for controlling acceleration/deceleration in platoons of vehicles do not effectively coordinate longitudinal and lateral motions, leading to reduced ride comfort and increased risk of collision, especially on curved roads.
Innovation Solution
A mobile object control system that adjusts the gain of an arithmetic expression for computing longitudinal acceleration based on information about the cargo carried by each vehicle, ensuring coordinated longitudinal and lateral motion control across a platoon.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a single vehicle performs G-vectoring control to coordinate longitudinal and lateral motions on curved roads, then ride comfort is improved, but the method cannot be applied to platoon travel where multiple vehicles must maintain coordinated motion and safe clearances
Solution Approach 1:
The platoon is segmented into individual mobile objects (vehicles), each equipped with independent control devices that calculate and execute longitudinal acceleration commands. Each vehicle independently computes its own longitudinal acceleration based on its lateral acceleration and predetermined gains, while also considering the positions and accelerations of preceding and following vehicles to maintain safe clearances throughout the platoon.
Solution Approach 2:
The control device in each mobile object performs multiple functions: it calculates longitudinal acceleration for ride comfort (G-vectoring control), monitors the platoon formation by detecting positions of other vehicles, adjusts for lateral acceleration effects, and ensures safe clearance maintenance. This universal control approach enables both individual vehicle comfort and collective platoon safety.
2Productivity
If vehicles in a platoon maintain extremely small clearances for traffic jam reduction and transport efficiency improvement, then productivity increases, but the risk of collision increases especially during acceleration and deceleration on curved roads
Solution Approach 1:
The control device calculates the required clearance adjustment distance in advance by multiplying the absolute value of lateral acceleration by a predetermined gain. This preliminary calculation allows the system to proactively adjust longitudinal acceleration to maintain safe clearances before collision risks materialize, enabling small platoon clearances without increasing collision probability.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system continuously detects the positions of preceding and following mobile objects, measures actual clearances, and uses this feedback to dynamically adjust longitudinal acceleration commands. This closed-loop feedback ensures that even with small target clearances for high productivity, the actual clearances remain safe by real-time monitoring and adjustment.
3Device complexity
If longitudinal acceleration is calculated using a fixed gain arithmetic expression, then the control system is simple to implement, but it cannot adapt to different vehicles carrying different cargo types with varying ride comfort requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The gain used in the arithmetic expression for calculating longitudinal acceleration is made dynamic rather than fixed. The control device selects different predetermined gains based on the type of cargo being transported, allowing the same control system structure to adapt to different ride comfort requirements. This dynamic parameter adjustment maintains system simplicity while achieving versatility across different cargo types.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a mobile body control system capable of improving both the comfort of passengers in each mobile body and the efficiency of cargo transport when a plurality of mobile bodies travel in a formation. A mobile body control system (1) causes a plurality of mobile bodies (21) to travel in a formation along a preset travel route, and comprises a preceding/succeeding acceleration calculation unit (S49) that calculates a preceding/succeeding acceleration of a preceding mobile body (21_n) and a succeeding mobile body (21_n+1) on the travel route. The preceding/succeeding acceleration calculation unit adjusts a gain E of an arithmetic expression used to calculate the preceding/succeeding acceleration on the basis of information about a transported object being transported by each mobile body (21).