Effects of Dynamic Weight Distribution and Communication Delay on Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Platoon Dynamics

Abstract

Connected and autonomous vehicles depend on inter-vehicular communications to perform cooperative driving tasks. Hardware failures and malicious attacks can cause communication disruptions, potentially affecting traffic efficiency and safety. In this paper, we proposed a multi-anticipative IDM with a range-based communication topology under delay. Information from multiple predecessor vehicles weighted through an exponential distribution incorporating cumulative distance and signal decay parameter. We derived stability conditions under communication delay to evaluate model stability under different parameter variations. The critical communication delay τc (ve ) is derived, beyond which the platoon becomes unstable. Also, the model is evaluated under clustered communication failure, where consecutive vehicles lost communication ability due to a malicious attack. Simulations show improved oscillation dampening and reduced velocity error than baseline IDM. Safety impact evaluated over a range of failure durations through multiple runs of simulations.