A generic simulation platform for cooperative adaptive cruise control under partially connected and automated environment

Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) has been regarded as the most promising technology that can be carried out in field earliest under partially connected and automated environment, and is one of the few Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) applications closest to its final shape. Therefore, validation of CACC running in real traffic is in urgent need. To support the validation, simulation plays a key role. This paper proposes a next-generation simulation platform for CACC evaluation and validation. It is able to not only validate the performance of a CACC platoon by itself, but also evaluate its performance when being released into the traffic. In addition, it can also quantify the impact of CACC vehicles on transportation systems. The proposed platform is generic in terms of CACC control system, background traffic condition, road geometry, and traffic control scheme. Furthermore, it is capable of capturing the dynamics of platoon formation and disengagement when CACC equipped vehicles are mixed up with human-driven vehicles. The proposed platform is validated by comparing against actual field data and previously published theoretical studies. The results confirm the credibility of the proposed platform in terms of: i) CACC control system embedded; ii) CAV and Human-driven Vehicle (HV) mixed traffic simulation; iii) managed lane simulation. It is also revealed that current CACC technology without upgrade may be a safety hazard and permitting CACC only on a dedicated CACC lane might be a good first step for CACC commercialization at this moment.