A New Linear Platoon Model Based on Reactive Multi-agent Systems

This paper presents a reactive multi agent approach to the platoon control problem for the linear configuration. Platoon is a train of vehicles composed of a head vehicle and a variable number of followers. Vehicle-to vehicle coupling is virtual. Each follower vehicle controls its movement by interacting only with the preceding one. To this end, platoon control was designed as a reactive multi agent system where each follower vehicle is an agent. Each agent behavior is specified by a physics inspired interaction model, which allows to compute vehicle speed and direction from a single perception: the distance to the preceding vehicle. We present the physics inspired interaction model together with a safety verification case study and simulations results.