Exploring Safety–Stability Tradeoffs in Cooperative CAV Platoon Controls with Bidirectional Impacts

Advanced sensing technologies and communication capabilities of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) empower them to capture the dynamics of surrounding vehicles, including speeds and positions of those behind, enabling judicious responsive maneuvers. The acquired dynamics information of vehicles spurred the development of various cooperative platoon controls, particularly designed to enhance platoon stability with reduced spacing for reliable roadway capacity increase. These controls leverage abundant information transmitted through various communication topologies. Despite these advancements, the impact of different vehicle dynamics information on platoon safety remains underexplored, as current research predominantly focuses on stability analysis. This knowledge gap highlights the critical need for further investigation into how diverse vehicle dynamics information influences platoon safety. To address this gap, this research introduces a novel framework based on the concept of phase shift, aiming to scrutinize the tradeoffs between the safety and stability of CAV platoons formed upon bidirectional information flow topology. Our investigation focuses on platoon controls built upon bidirectional information flow topologies using diverse dynamics information of vehicles. Our research findings emphasize that the integration of various types of information into CAV platoon controls does not universally yield benefits. Specifically, incorporating spacing information can enhance both platoon safety and string stability. In contrast, velocity difference information can improve either safety or string stability, but not both simultaneously. These findings offer valuable insights into the formulation of CAV platoon control principles built upon diverse communication topologies. This research contributes a nuanced understanding of the intricate interplay between safety and stability in CAV platoons, emphasizing the importance of information dynamics in shaping effective control strategies.