A Centralized Cooperative Lane-Changing Strategy for Merging into CAV Platoon

This study proposes a centralized cooperative lane-changing (CLC) strategy to improve road safety and travel efficiency on the highway. This strategy is implemented based on the coordination between merging vehicles and connected automated vehicle (CAV) platoon on the target lane. It includes lane-changing decision model, gap choice model, and relaxation model. Safety and efficiency indexes are used in the evaluation to compare the influence of different lane-changing strategies. The result shows that non-cooperative lane change may result in severe safety risks and significant efficiency loss. On the contrast, centralized CLC strategy decreases the safety risks and alleviates the efficiency loss. Moreover, this strategy also decreases the amplitude of acceleration and reduces speed fluctuation. It indicates that the cooperation process can furtherly enhance the advantages of CAVs in rapid response and execution.