Connected Vehicle-Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control Algorithm to Divide and Reform Connected Vehicle Platoons at Signalized Intersections to Improve Traffic Throughput and Safety

Abstract

The cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) algorithm is a simple and effective way to form small-headway platoons so that road capacity and traffic throughput can be improved. The CACC algorithm has been broadly discussed in relation to the highway driving environment where frequent stopping and merging are uncommon. This paper proposes that CACC can also benefit urban arterials, using the appropriate algorithm to predict platoon behavior with optimized trajectories to divide and reform platoons before and after signalized intersections, thus maintaining small, safe headways. Connected vehicle (CV) technology is the key to adapting and improving the CACC algorithm, as it enables the signal phasing plan to be sent to a target CACC platoon and allows vehicles to acquire real-time information from other vehicles in the platoon. In this research, a CV-CACC algorithm is proposed consisting of two functions: platoon division and platoon reforming. The new algorithm is also equipped with acceleration as a new control variable instead of speed, so that the platoon is able to accommodate sharp speed changes around intersections, something the baseline CACC is unable to accommodate. In this study, computer simulations have been conducted to test the reliability of the CV-CACC algorithm and compare its performance against the baseline CACC algorithm.