Optimal choice of intra platoon spacing based on mu-jump maneuvers

Platooning deals with the automatic control of a line of road vehicles travelling with small spacing among each other. Thus, advantages in terms of higher road capacity and lower fuel consumptions can be achieved. One critical issue is the determination of the spacing between platoon vehicles. Usually emergency braking simulations with vehicles having different braking capabilities and roads characterized by different friction conditions are used to determine this spacing also considering effects of automatic control delays. In this paper a different and more critical condition is used to determine the target inter-vehicular spacing: emergency braking simulation on a road surface characterized by ?-jump conditions. Such maneuver, in which tire-road friction switches abruptly and repeatedly between high and low, is the typical maneuver adopted for assessing the performances of critical vehicle safety control logics such as ABS and ESP control algorithms.