Liu, Yunjie (Southeast University), Dong, Changyin (Northwestern Polytechnical University), Hou, Yuxuan (Southeast University), Wang, Hao (Southeast University)

Cooperative Decision-Making and Trajectory-Control Approaches for Platoon Merging in a Connected Environment

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "S25b-Cooperative and Connected Autonomous Systems" (TH-EA-T25), Thursday, November 20, 2025, 14:50−14:50, Cooleangata 4

2025 IEEE 28th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), November 18-21, 2025, Gold Coast, Australia

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on October 18, 2025

Abstract

Abstract—This paper proposes cooperative decision-making and trajectory-control approaches based on vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication for cooperative platoon merging. These approaches aim to extend the cooperation range and improve traffic performance by utilizing the wide-range V2I communication. By analyzing the traffic flow characteristics of the current and target lanes, the cooperation range is extended to two lanes. This reduces the negative impact of speed fluctuations in the merging process. To achieve bidirectional coordination between the merging vehicles and the target platoons, a cost function is established considering safety, efficiency and waiting duration for gap selection. Then, the platoon relaxation and merging trajectory control models are presented based on the selected gaps. The result shows that the cooperative decision-making and trajectory-control approaches can improve road safety and balance system efficiency and the expectations of the merging vehicles by adjusting coefficients. Moreover, these two approaches maintain effectiveness in high-density traffic flow and promote the superiority of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) by improving traffic flow performance. Keywords—platoon merging, cooperative decision-making, trajectory control, vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, cost function