Cooperative Maneuvering of Automated Road Vehicles

The aim of the envisioned research is to develop a framework for self-organization of an automated vehicular system on all operational levels, ranging from the vehicle level up to and including the logistical level. Here, the underlying paradigm is that vehicles are interconnected through a vehicular ad hoc wireless network (VANET), allowing them to optimize their collective behavior by means of a distributed implementation of control algorithms. Consequently, self-organization of an interconnected system, in this particular application consisting of road vehicles, is key to the envisioned project. Since the main objective is to efficiently and safely transport goods or people, a multi-layered consensus control (MLCC) framework must be designed to create a desired emergent behavior of the system as a whole, incorporating both analysis and synthesis. The application area involves automated vehicles on public roads as well as automatic guided vehicles (AGV’s) in closed areas. Both types of applications are characterized by state transitions that occur, e.g., when switching between platooning, merging of a vehicle into a platoon, giving right of way, or avoiding an obstacle. In particular for application to autonomous vehicles on public roads, resilience of the system is crucial due to the presence of manually driven vehicles, acting as an external disturbance to the system. In addition, system robustness also plays an important role for AGV’s to cope with malfunctioning vehicles or other system failures.