Routes for Splitting and Merging Maneuvers of Platoon Followers in Urban Environments

This work presents a trajectory generation strategy used for merging and splitting maneuvers of a platoon of vehicles formed in urban environments. Using the reference trajectory defined and marked by the lead unit, and using pre-defined locations of the parking areas outside this trajectory, a solution sets out that fixes the way to follow for the units that require to separate (split) or to connect (merge) the convoy. The proposal is based on arcs of circumference adapted to the kinematics constrains of the vehicle for initial and final stretches, and on a tangent line to these circumferences to minimize the path distance. In addition the maneuver trajectory includes one static end (park point) and another dynamic end which is determined based on the relation between the maneuver trajectory and the convoy trajectory. All of that is part of the strategy designed for platooning guidance in transport scenarios characterized by low speeds (up to 50 Km/h) and with hard nonlinearities as much in the reference trajectory as in the maneuver one.