Platoon Lane-Change Control Using Rearmost Vehicle First
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing platooning technologies face challenges in ensuring space for lane changes of vehicle groups during platooning, leading to potential delays as they rely on notification of surrounding vehicles without guaranteeing space availability until the end of lane changing.
Innovation Solution
A travel assistance device with a vehicle-side unit incorporating a travel assistance ECU, communication device, ADAS locator, HMI system, and surrounding monitoring sensor, which enables accurate distance control and communication among vehicles to ensure space availability in the destination lane by executing lane changing control in either rearmost or head modes based on vacant region size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the technique of Patent Document 1 is used to change the lane of a vehicle group during platooning, then the surrounding vehicles are notified of the lane changing, but the space where the vehicle group can move may not be able to be ensured until the end of the lane changing, which may delay the vehicle changing
Solution Approach 1:
The rearmost vehicle changes its lane in advance before the head and following vehicles perform lane changing. This preliminary action by the rearmost vehicle secures the necessary space in the destination lane, ensuring that when the head and following vehicles change lanes, sufficient space is already available, thereby preventing delays while maintaining safety
2Productivity
If the entire vehicle group changes lane simultaneously, then the lane changing is completed quickly, but it is difficult to ensure sufficient space in the destination lane for the long vehicle group
Solution Approach 1:
The lane changing process is segmented into sequential phases: first the rearmost vehicle changes lane, then the head and following vehicles change lane. This segmentation allows the long vehicle group to maneuver in a coordinated sequence, ensuring space availability for each segment while maintaining overall efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The rearmost vehicle performs lane changing as a preliminary action before the rest of the vehicle group. This advance movement by the rearmost vehicle creates the necessary space in the destination lane, enabling the head and following vehicles to change lanes smoothly without collision risk
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided is a travel assistance device configured to execute travel assistance when a plurality of vehicles form a vehicle group and travel in a line. The travel assistance device comprises: a first control unit configured to, if there is lane-change instruction for the vehicle group, cause an end-of-line vehicle to change lanes, such vehicle being the vehicle from among the plurality of vehicles forming the vehicle group that is positioned at the end of the line; and a second control unit configured to, following the lane change of the end-of-line vehicle, allow a lane change for at least one vehicle that is other than the end-of-line vehicle and that is one of the vehicles forming the vehicle group.