Platform-based Platooning to Connect Two Autonomous Vehicle Areas

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been successfully applied in closed environments such as ports and industrial zones, while their operation in open areas has a long way to go. The current research is initiated to overcome this limitation by the introduction of platooning as a transfer mode. It investigates a container transportation problem between a port and an industrial area where the platform facilitates collaborative transportation. Both zones are appropriate for automated driving, whereas their connecting route is not. Different carriers are present at the port, and each transportation task can be done either by a truck or an AV. The platform not only operates as the interface between demand points and carriers but also provides a platooning service to move AVs through non-autonomous roads. It specifies the transportation schedules and service fees based on which the carriers will decide whether to use AVs or trucks for each transportation task. This is modeled as a Stackelberg competition, transformed into a conventional mixed-integer model, and solved to optimality. The approach enables demand and resource pooling between the port and industrial area. Numerical results show that the successful application of AVs highly depends on platoon formation costs and regulations.