EAAI Journal 2026 Journal Article
Adaptive eco-cooperative adaptive cruise control for heterogeneous Vehicle platoons using online identification-informed deep reinforcement learning
- Jianing Sun
- Chenhao Xiong
- Chunjie Zhai
- Yuyuan Li
- Xiongding Liu
- Chuqiao Chen
- Chenggang Yan
- Yahong Chen
With the advancement of autonomous driving technologies, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has increasingly played a pivotal role in the control of intelligent connected vehicle (ICV) platoons. Traditional DRL-based platoon control methods often overlook the dynamic discrepancies between vehicles (such as weight and powertrain delays), which results in inadequate adaptability of the control systems. To address this issue, this paper introduces an innovative heterogeneous platoon control method that combines the Adaptive Forgetting Factor Least Squares (AFFLS) algorithm with Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). The proposed approach leverages the AFFLS algorithm to perform real-time identification of vehicle dynamic parameters, enabling the control system to dynamically adjust to various vehicles. This enhances the platoon stability, passenger comfort, communication delay robustness, and fuel efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate the practical advantages of this approach: maintaining the average inter-vehicle distance error within 0. 01 m, reducing the stabilization time to approximately 3 s, and lowering fuel consumption. Compared to four baseline methods, our method exhibits superior adaptability and robustness. This study offers a novel perspective for the collaborative control of heterogeneous platoons in real-world applications, achieving more efficient and safer vehicle control in dynamic traffic environments.