| Summary: | Transportation-cost is an important factor in the price of products, from groceries to industrial products. These products are conventionally transported using road carriers, both domestic and international. The two largest parts of the transportation-costs using this method are fuel and driver costs. Research has shown that by using platoons, traffic flow is increased and fuel cost is reduced. The aim of this thesis is to study different disturbances and their effect on platoons to enable platooning. Two types of disturbances have been identified; internal and external. The internal disturbance is delay in the radar of the adaptive cruise control, and external disturbances are different road and traffic scenarios. Throughout this thesis, the disturbances identified have been modeled and implemented on a heavy-duty vehicle platoon of five vehicles. These disturbances have been implemented single and in combinations, trying to identify the properties of a robust adaptive cruise control and platoon. The simulations show that the adaptive cruise control can manage external disturbances resulting in a robust platoon. But by implementing radar delay, increase of relative velicity and decrease of relative distance are amplified through the platoon. Further using the vehicle’s collision warning system a correlation has been found, resulting in identification of a robust area for a platoon. This identification could be used to help avoiding collision warnings and collisions in the platoons.
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