Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - June 2021 - 18

Platooning:
an evolving pathway
to full autonomy
" W
e are tantalizingly close, " a recent blog post by
Locomation asserted regarding true driverless
vehicles navigating public roadways. " But the
challenges that remain on the pathway to commercialization
will keep the dream at bay for some time to come. "
Instead, the Pittsburgh-based tech company's approach to autonomy
keeps a human firmly seated in the cab - at least in the lead
vehicle of a truck platoon.
Locomation's proprietary Autonomous Relay Convoying (ARC)
technology has an AI-controlled follower truck that uses its own perception
and information exchanged over dedicated short-range intervehicle
communication (DSRC) to follow the human-driven leader
tractor-trailer. The follower rig remains aware of its surroundings and
is cognizant of potential threats, according to Locomation, but it
leaves most of the high-level driving decisions to the human and is
only concerned with mimicking the maneuvers of the lead truck.
Platoons employing this approach are logging miles and collecting
data on different stretches of highway across the U.S. The company
recently completed a pilot project operating on Interstate 84 between
Nampa, Idaho, and Portland, Oregon. The challenging stretch,
which includes steep grades, tricky curves and gusty winds, allowed
engineers to observe how the system would have performed on its
own. " We are focusing on the parts of full autonomy that can be
commercialized successfully today, leaving the parts that require further
development and validation for tomorrow, " the company said.
Due to aerodynamic-drag improvements and precise control of the
18 June 2021
With Locomation's proprietary Autonomous
Relay Convoying technology, an AI-controlled
follower tractor-trailer uses its own perception
and information exchanged over DSRC
to mimic the human-driven leader rig.
Human-guided convoys can provide real-world benefits sooner than individual
driverless trucks, but safety and operational issues still need to be resolved to
optimize platoon configurations.
by Ryan Gehm
vehicle by the autonomous driving system, ARC is expected
to provide several benefits: an estimated 30% or
more reduction in operating cost per mile, 8% reduction
in fuel expense, increase in freight density of 2x per lane
and annual CO2
emissions cuts of 41 metric tons per
tractor. Locomation believes human-guided autonomous
convoys provide a " stable development path " for
higher levels of automation moving forward.
Still, truck platooning is not without its own hazards.
Safety analysis of platooning-system
concepts
A hazard is an event that poses a danger to people, the
system, or the environment. " Generally, it's caused by
human error, a failure of hardware or a software defect. It
may also be caused by limitations of the system design
- for example, a scenario that's unaccounted for, " said
Alrik Svenson, a research engineer at the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Svenson
presented at the 2021 SAE Government/Industry Digital
Summit an overview of a recent study that assessed the
hazards of heavy-truck platooning systems.
The team, which consisted of researchers from
Battelle, the Volvo Group, WABCO (now part of ZF)
and SAE International, performed a risk assessment for
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Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - June 2021

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