COMMUNICATION BETWEEN VEHICLES OF A PLATOON
Problem:
Platoon formation of vehicles is a critical foundation for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle control improving road safety, traffic flow, and environmental concerns towards the realization of intelligent transportation systems. Radio frequency (RF) wireless technologies are typically used to enable vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The main problem in using RF based communications in a vehicular platoon is that the communication between vehicles may be distorted by intentional RF jamming or could be intercepted by third parties, resulting in lack of reliability and security.
Technology:
The objective of the proposed invention is to provide a secure and reliable transmission between consecutive and non-consecutive vehicles in a platoon system through the use of visible light communication (VLC) technology. VLC is based on the idea of modulating light emitting diodes (LEDs) at very high speeds which are not noticeable to the human eye. Through this technology, vehicles fitted with LED-based front and back lights can communicate with each other in an inherently secure way. VLC is however mainly limited to communication between consecutive vehicles and does not provide an easy method of communication between any non-consecutive or multiple vehicles in a platoon. To address this problem, this invention proposes a reliable multi-hop VLC communication based on token-based data transmission, in addition to determining the position of each vehicle in the platoon without any prior information.
Advantages:
•Secure and reliable data communications within a vehicular platoon
•Determining vehicle positions without the need of an external system such as a GPS
•System based on low-cost and energy-efficient VLC technology
Related Publications:
TRL 3