Truck routing and platooning problem considering time-varying traffic conditions

Abstract

Truck platooning enabled by connected and automated vehicles (CAV) has shown great potential to reduce fuel consumption and save road space. However, the realization of these favorable benefits requires precise synchronization of the routes and schedules for the truck fleet subject to constantly changing traffic conditions caused by various factors, e.g., rush hour. Therefore, this study investigates the truck routing and platooning problem in consideration of the time-varying travel speeds. The problem is to seek time-compatible routes and schedules for the truck fleet while minimizing the fuel consumption via the formation of platoons over the entire trip without violating the service time window. We develop a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for the proposed problem, which can be solved by state-of-the-art solvers like Gurobi. Numerical experiments are conducted to verify the efficacy of the proposed model and demonstrate the necessity to consider time-varying traffic conditions in truck routing and platooning.